So it's about two weeks too late, but I will now take up the topic question for this post. Ironically, this comes on the heels (well, if you consider a month and a half "heels") of my previous faux launch post detailing my affection for my co-conspirators on this thing.
Though at first blush, this question seems unanswerable, or at the very least impossible to answer without contradicting my previous post and/or alienating some of my friends, I think this segues nicely into thinking about the ways we conceptualize human relationships.
The context for this question is in fact a direct quotation of a prior rhetorical question posed to me by a former person-of-ambiguous-relation to a close friend of mine in quasi-jokingly reference to that friend. After initially being taken aback, it also occurred to me that the simple answer to that question was "he's my friend" and that really is enough.
Fundamentally, I believe that everyone has both a lot of potential for good and a lot of potential for bad in them. We've presumably identified, witnesses, or hope for the good in those closest to us. But that doesn't mean that they don't have the same potential for bad, I suppose it all varies upon context.
I've formerly said that I can respect someone without liking them on the basis that no matter how much I personally dislike them, they are somebody's beloved son/daughter/mother/father/brother/sister/friend/whatever. And that really should be enough. Often times we're too dismissive of others because their views are incompatible with ours or they've done something to hurt us, but the truth of the matter is that at one point or another we've all been the "asshole."
Friendship must be based on a profound affection and loyalty that may sometimes seem antithetical to our own self-interest, and that perhaps is what makes it so beautiful. Entailed in that is knowing and believing that the good you saw in that person is there and helping to bring the best out in them. Hell, if all of my friends chose not to be friends with assholes then I'm willing to bet I wouldn't have a whole lot of friends left. But they chose to have faith in me as I do in them and it is a continuing source of pride, confidence, inspiration, and motivation.
I'm hard pressed to imagine a world where there weren't contexts in which people were getting hurt or feeling wronged by others. Cliche as it sounds, nobody can please everybody. Ultimately, it's that support and that belief of friendship that redeems these lapses in judgment or behavior.
-Yet to be Determined Alias
