Making a list and checking it twice. May 1, 2006
Ethan and his friends see things in these incredible black-and-white terms. Right now Amelia doesn’t like Ethan, she likes Jake and only Jake. And Ethan told Amelia that she can never come to our house, ever again. And Thomas and Jake are on the outs because Thomas beat Jake at mock wrestling so Jake said he and Thomas aren’t friends. It’s a reverse love quadrangle. It goes with the age that they think it is so easy to realign relationships with a few heartfelt words. How old were you the last time you told someone, “You’re not my best friend any more, X is”? Nanny-nanny-boo-boo.
Next time they’re all together, Amelia and Ethan will run to each other and hug, Jake and Thomas will gallop away to climb a tree together, and their fluid friendships will shift yet again.
Why aren’t adult relationships as simple? Instead of lying awake at night wondering if I’d put my foot in it with one friend, wouldn’t it be easier all around if she said, “I don’t like what you said, and I don’t like you“? Or vice versa? Imagine the clarity our friendships would have if we were as outspoken as three-year-old kids, instead of trying not to hurt each others feelings or have our own feelings hurt by a passing comment. And then the very moment we had that out of our system, we could be friends again.
Of course, when you see two grown women adopting the emotional mentality of preschoolers, more than likely they’ll be rolling on the ground pulling each others’ hair and scratching at the others’ face in a rage unlike anything you’ve ever witnessed before. And when you pull those grown women apart and say, “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!” they both look at you and point at the other and deny any part in the madness. Then you tell them both to apologise to each other and they look at anything but the other person, and mutter something unintelligible out of the corner out their mouths, and flounce away because they’ve already forgotten what they were fighting about.
Yeah, that sounds good.
