The Rules

I feel the need to postpone my End of the Year series in order to speak of something that has been on my mind: The rules.

Last night I had a long conversation about the power, or lack thereof, of prayer, with my roommates girlfriend. I asked her in a (hopefully) un-intrusive and open way about what she thinks about prayer. She is catholic, and as such believes that prayer and God exists, but the extent of their affect is very limited. I wish I could have reassured her, but frankly I have no firsthand experiences that show that prayer has been exceedingly beneficial. My parents do, but stories like "I know people who have experienced this and that" are rarely very moving. So all I did was listen and agree.

Remember that my roommate was the one that used to be against drinking, at least to my knowledge, and now is very okay with the idea. Also remember that this had a large and painful affect on me.

I bring up this point because it was his girlfriend that got him into drinking in the first place, so I find it interesting that I am now friends with her. At one point I had hoped to maybe convince her to stop, but she is adamant and as strong in her beliefs as I am in mine, even if she feigns apathy. So I realized a while ago that I am powerless to change my friends, and so to avoid going through what I went through with my roommate, I had created a set of rules.

1) I cannot get very attached to these people. Attachment is foolish and can only lead to heartache. So I never care when they go out and get blitzed, they are free to kill themselves with little or no intervention on my part.

2) I can never try to change them. This always ends badly, is wholly useless and just ends up straining the friendship.

3) I have to accept what they do, and my lack of affect. There is nothing I can do, and that's the truth.

There are probably more rules that I may add. I need to remember to abide by these rules when I talking to my friends, for my sake and theirs.