What Price Friendship?

[IROCNROL1]

A few of you may vaguely remember my original "Street Racing" thread. This one is part of the ongoing saga. If anyone didn't see the original and wants to, I'll try to post a link. Thanks, and I hope it is informative.

What Price Friendship?

There seems to be more and more conflict on a personal level these days, as people have become too busy to adequately develop their social skills. While I freely admit that my main area of expertise is automotive performance enhancement, I have been around a while longer than some, and also have the benefit of having grown up in a kinder, gentler time. While not claiming to be Miss Manners or anything of the sort, I do believe that I can offer some valuable insight on this particular subject. Obviously, not all situations have a rosy outcome, but it's still important for you to react correctly. With that in mind, I submit the following account.

Last week I was hanging out with one of my buds in the HyVee parking lot. Just digging the cruise scene, discussing performance mods and critiquing video games. Well naturally, all good things must come to an end, and boy, did they ever! A couple of punks decided that it would be amusing to make fun of his Cavalier. While I really couldn't blame them since his car was pathetic, loyalty trumps all, so I was stuck on his side.

When it became obvious that they had no intention of laying off, I told him that if he felt like teaching them some manners, to feel free to proceed with the lesson, because I had his back.

Words soon escalated into action and shortly thereafter it became apparent that he had bitten off way more than he could chew. It really bothered me that he was getting pummelled so badly, so after about 5 minutes I decided he probably wasn't going to pull a Rocky Balboa style miraculous comeback and I'd better do something quick or I'd be short one friend. Yes, it was that bad. I whipped out my cell phone and pretended to call 911. After I started yelling out our location and what the situation was into a dead phone, the thugs figured it was time to leave in a hurry. I helped him up and tried to console him, but he decided to take his anger out on me! "I thought you had my back" he blubbered.
"Well hello? Did either of them attack you from behind? It looked to me like they were too busy hitting you in the face for that." I replied.
"That's not what it means," he whined. "It means that if they both jump in that you'll help me!"
"Look," I said. "I'm sorry that you misinterpreted the meaning of the phrase, but if you'll recall, I did fake a 911 call to get them off your back." For some reason that didn't make much of an impression, he just kept sniveling. And then he blamed me for getting him into the fight!

Don't get me wrong; I'm as compassionate and sympathetic as the next guy, but the excitement was over, Dancing with the stars was coming on in thirty minutes, and I had no desire to listen to his problems anyway. I decided that the complete truth was the best course of action. "You're 17 and almost an adult," I retorted. "Don't you think it's time to take responsibility for your own actions?" That wasn't entirely correct, because I had egged him on, but that was only because I thought he could take both of them. I certainly had no desire to see a friend get beat senseless. Yet more whining! "Fine," I said. "It's pretty obvious how little you value our friendship. I'm 52; I could get into a lot of trouble for hitting a 14 year-old girl who's less than half my weight. Also, I had no intention of telling our buddies that you got your butt kicked by a couple of pubescent girls, but I'm starting to reconsider." That did the trick. He started crying and went home.

Later, I felt kind of bad about not giving him enough time to calm down, see that he was wrong, and apologize. I also remembered that he had several video games I hadn't played yet, so I decided to give him another chance. I called 5 or 6 times during the next 2 days but his mother always answered the phone and she kept coming up with more and more lame excuses as to why he couldn't come to the phone. It started out with "He's still crying" then "He's just staring at the walls" and even "He's talking to suicide prevention." The last time I called, she didn't even attempt to make any excuses. She was just hostile and antagonistic, which I don't really have a problem with, because in this modern world, people treat me that way all the time, and I'm used to it. But then she actually accused me of being the Peeping Tom that her neighbor had called the cops on last week! That was a major mistake on her part, because although I'm as easy going and reasonable as they get, I don't take false accusations lightly, so there was no way I was going to let that one slide. "Oh yeah?" I said. "Don't flatter yourself. I can find younger, better-looking women than you all day long on the Internet. And besides that, they don't have stretch marks and know how to use a razor too." As I expected, she didn't have a comeback for that one. She just started crying and hung up on me. What's with this family? Are they all a bunch of crybabies?

Upon further reflection though, maybe I should have left that last part out, because to someone who didn't know the whole story it might appear to be an inadvertent admission of guilt. The whole story being that I did happen to pause a moment to tie my shoelace while walking past her bathroom window. So what? I didn't even know she was taking a shower at the time. Her shrill, blood-curdling scream knocked me off their central air conditioning unit and left my ears ringing for hours. I'm just lucky that the window was closed, or I would have suffered permanent hearing loss. As it is, I'll probably have nightmares for life. I would have hung around to explain the misunderstanding, but I had to hurry home to make sure my ears weren't bleeding and to change my wet pants.

Anyway, the point of the story is that no matter how hard you try to salvage a friendship, sometimes you just have to let it go, because some people are just too selfish and immature to reason with. A sad, but true fact of life. I consider it to be his loss anyway, because it will be very difficult to find a better friend than me. Someone that no matter what happens will always have your back.

[gregorypeter]

Everything about that story just shows how much of a **** you are. Who would want to be your friend if you treat them like that? You might want to reread your story and reevaluate what you did. Anyways, what are you, a 52 year old, hanging out with a seventeen year old anyway?

[CobaltSScrazy]

so let me get this straight? You're 52 and hanging around with a 17 yr old guy and he got beat up by two 14 year old girls?

First off, we are homosapiens, not neanderthals...you should NEVER let ANY situation degenerate into fighting and physical violence. that demonstrates a lack of restraint, discipline, and most importantly, emotional intelligence.

Also: If you tell someone 'you got their back' it DOES mean if someone trys to hurt them you physically step in and intervene FOR YOUR FRIEND'S SAFETY AT LEAST (not if they are going to hurt someone but if they are getting hurt...its called "doing the right thing" ESPECIALLY if you egged him on and influenced/instigated him into that action. YOU are the wayyy older adult, and although I recognize everyone has to be held accountable to their own actions, you should have helped him physically to stop getting hurt. not hurting the other people, but at least separating the three of them, not chickening out by calling the cops.)

sounds like you are looking for justification "I art holier than thou---my 'former' friend is scum and should realize the benefit of having me in his life---i am God's gift to mankind---and I love making mothers feel Horrible"...not getting ANY from me assuming my initial premise in my post is accurate and I did not misunderstand you. YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE AND NO ONE IS BETTER THAN YOU. DOESN'T MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY, INTELLIGENCE, OCCUPATION, ETC. THAT YOU HAVE, we are all HUMAN and we are all EQUAL under the Natural Law that governes all human beings as well as many faiths doctrines, Muslim, Jew, Catholic, Christian, etc.

Friendships and relationships are a two way street. Things are not always rosy, there WILL be arguments, there will be miscommunication, there will be issues that challenge the fabric of two person's friendship. This is a fact of life.

CobaltSScrazy

[IROCNROL1]

Originally Posted by gregorypeter

Everything about that story just shows how much of a **** you are. Who would want to be your friend if you treat them like that? You might want to reread your story and reevaluate what you did. Anyways, what are you, a 52 year old, hanging out with a seventeen year old anyway?

Now that I think about it, you're right.

[IROCNROL1]

Originally Posted by CobaltSScrazy

so let me get this straight? You're 52 and hanging around with a 17 yr old guy and he got beat up by two 14 year old girls?

First off, we are homosapiens, not neanderthals...you should NEVER let ANY situation degenerate into fighting and physical violence. that demonstrates a lack of restraint, discipline, and most importantly, emotional intelligence.

Also: If you tell someone 'you got their back' it DOES mean if someone trys to hurt them you physically step in and intervene FOR YOUR FRIEND'S SAFETY AT LEAST (not if they are going to hurt someone but if they are getting hurt...its called "doing the right thing" ESPECIALLY if you egged him on and influenced/instigated him into that action. YOU are the wayyy older adult, and although I recognize everyone has to be held accountable to their own actions, you should have helped him physically to stop getting hurt. not hurting the other people, but at least separating the three of them, not chickening out by calling the cops.)

sounds like you are looking for justification "I art holier than thou---my 'former' friend is scum and should realize the benefit of having me in his life---i am God's gift to mankind---and I love making mothers feel Horrible"...not getting ANY from me assuming my initial premise in my post is accurate and I did not misunderstand you. YOU ARE NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE AND NO ONE IS BETTER THAN YOU. DOESN'T MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY, INTELLIGENCE, OCCUPATION, ETC. THAT YOU HAVE, we are all HUMAN and we are all EQUAL under the Natural Law that governes all human beings as well as many faiths doctrines, Muslim, Jew, Catholic, Christian, etc.

Friendships and relationships are a two way street. Things are not always rosy, there WILL be arguments, there will be miscommunication, there will be issues that challenge the fabric of two person's friendship. This is a fact of life.

CobaltSScrazy

I thought you guys were gonna be on my side.

[TiburonJT]

Originally Posted by IROCNROL1

maybe I should have left that last part out

You shouldn't have posted about on this subject at all. I'll leave it at that. My entire opinion will get removed by mods.

[Quickening]

Yeh, you were in the wrong.

[MRSshadams]

Errrr....am I the only one who saw this as satirical?

I could be wrong, but it sure seems like satire, to me.

[Butz]

I don't see anything wrong with what you did


Just to make sure this is a made up story not real, right?

Edit: If it is true, how can you hang with someone less than half your age?

[tom3]

Sounds like there's a song in there somewhere. "The Geezer Song"

[member12]

This is a joke, right?

[plane]

IROCNROL1,

That was an incredibly heartwarming story.

I just hope someday, when two young ladies are pummeling me senseless, you would make a fake 911 call for me.

I'm pretty sure I would do the same for you.

[plane]

Originally Posted by IROCNROL1

But then she actually accused me of being the Peeping Tom that her neighbor had called the cops on last week!

Wasn't Stacy your friend's sister?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=0

[IROCNROL1]

Yes, folks. It was fake. It's just that it seems to have more punch if I just throw it out there. Sorry if I offended anyone, my intention was to make people laugh.

As with the first one, I'll post a "racing tips" story within a day or so.

[IROCNROL1]

Originally Posted by plane

IROCNROL1,

That was an incredibly heartwarming story.

I just hope someday, when two young ladies are pummeling me senseless, you would make a fake 911 call for me.

I'm pretty sure I would do the same for you.

You've got it. After all, what are friends for?