FRIENDS!!

I've seen the show "FRIENDS" a couple of times, but having been raised on M*A*S*H and Cheers, I never could get into this show much. I guess Joey has his spinoff and it's been a success as the original, but still its not my cup of tea. However, the real thing, now that's a different matter! We all need friends, and the more the merrier. That is an established fact apparently, and such that the one who has the most friends, is the happiest and the most solid. Those friends "ground" you and establish your mental well-being. In fact, you are actually known by your friends. You thought your Mother was just fooling ya didn't ya?! Hahaha, but no she had it down pat! The better the friends the better your character. This subject just keeps bearing out and so if you have any motivation to better yourself, get yourself some more, or new friends. Right the ones that have been wronged if you have some of them, and forgive those who have done you in. It will be better than money in your pocket. Of course, there is a time to dust one, but make that as seldom an occasion as possible. If you just stop right now, and take the extreme positions: 1. Many Friends and 2. No Friends, you can even now see how solid this point I'm making is. Without a friend you would have a very difficult go of it and be one of the saddest people on earth. Loneliness is perhaps the worst curse a person can know, and companionship is what life is truly all about.
Now, back to my Mother. Well, she had just the hardest time of it being alone without my Dad and so I, living the floor above her, became her constant companion almost 24/7. I believe she has the beginnings of Alzheimers, or some other form of dementia, and she became very mean. She first of all decided to quit all of her friends like my Dad did in the Home, and count on us children to be her Buddies. I am guessing but think that the reason they both did that was to make it obvious to each of us kids that they needed us and that therein we would feel the obligation to take care of them for a large part of the day. What it did do, is frustrate us all and incense us that they made us all feel the guilt and burden to take care of them excessively. None of us would begrudge proper attention to them, but the way they went about it was unnecessary and deceitful. I especially felt abused because I was the closest and thus the most obligated. Also, Mother took her mean streak and brought me down to size so many times and I lost much self respect and esteem. I have to allow for the fact that she didn't know what she was doing, and so have noone to even tell my troubles to and feel like I have a story to be heard. I can't claim abuse when it is unpurposive.
What I have learned this winter about dementia is something I hope to avoid at all costs whenever I can. I look at the friends that I do have now and I value them in a way I did not before! Plus, seeing the way my parents went about their life at reducing their friends makes me learn what "not" to do. Take the money and throw it to the wind rather than lose one friend I say! Envision yourself on the moon with 10 $Billion Dollars all your own! and yet all by yourself! Now, what good does it do you? It puts into perspective so very fast how valuable friends truly are, and it shows that there are categories where things have no comparison. You simply cannot equate a friend to any amount of money. How much money does it take to buy someone? There is obviously no price. So, when fights happen, and they surely will, put the brakes on when it's getting so bad that the friendship is at a breaking point. Don't lose what cannot be regained. I will bear with my Mother because of the unusual circumstances and maintain my filial duty, but my eyes have been opened to a viewpoint that I have never had previous. To all of you who will call yourself my Friend, or call me your Friend?!!!! I Cherish you and your friendship more than you will know! Peace, and let's get together soon!