His Phoenix

I spoke last night with one of the people that I can call a true friend on the phone (for the second time) for nearly an hour and a half. You know, one of those real friends, the kind I like to call “take a bullet” friends. Those kind of friends are rare indeed. I know that I can count this kind of friend on one hand, with digits left over.

This friend and I have never met face to face, but I know without a second thought, that I would take a bullet for this friend and he would do the same for me. I also know that I can trust this friend with anything. How rare this is in todays age of meeting people globally in an instant message, or game and chat room.

The hour and a half I spent talking with my friend was the best mind activating, smile creating, and down right giggle fest I have spent in a very long time. The kind of conversation you crave for on a day to day basis. He challenges my every thought process with wit and humor. He will not allow me to dwell in self-pity or loathing of my situation here at home. He refuses to allow me even a second of depression. You know the kind, the kind that comes from the dreaded pre-menopausal, I am getting old and feel so alone. Or the kind that hits you after a really bad relationship, or the “my old man is at it again”.

He calls me his Phoenix, his Faulkes, because I have this habit of rising from everything bad and I can find myself in the ashes of the aftermath. To me, he is my Professor Dumbledore, my sage and advisor, my rock and confessor. We have been friends for years and we have been there for each other in all things good and bad. Although, I must confess, he has been there for me more than I for him, but it all works out in the wash in the end.

I say all this for two reasons.
1. I want to thank him for being my “take a bullet” friend. For being the person he is, and for the friendship he has given me.
2. I placed a thought in his mind last night on us doing a sort of He said, She Said here in this medium. We both agreed it would be fun and another way of giving each other a daily dose of making each other think. People need that today. There is plenty of conversation to be had out here in cyberspace, but not enough at home where it should be.

So, with all that said, here is todays thought:

Why is it that we can not seem to articulate our thought processes with real words. Today’s world is a world of shortcuts. Faster commutes, faster food, faster lives and sadly, faster talking. Real words have gotten lost and have been replaced with shorter, non-dictionary responses. In lieu of (yes that was for you Carlo) saying the real words, we have destroyed the english language with cut up versions. Is this going to continue? I hope not. It is time for parents to make a stand! Start correcting your children when you hear them say something wrong. Someday they will thank you for it!

*************************************************************************************
I know, I KNOW! I am WAY late in replying to this. Sorry.

After our conversation I started thinking about all of the colloquialisms that have invaded the American language, and become commonplace. I was greeted by a friend the other day using the term “s’up”, as in the shortened version of “what’s up?”, and I wondered how this particular question replaced “Hello, how are you?” as the common greeting.
I have started to get annoyed with the common shortcuts that we use, linguistically, however, I have also discovered that I am just as guilty of their usage as anyone. For example, I use “What’s up?” as a common greeting every day. I have been paying more attention to it, however, and I have started actually saying “greetings” (before you accuse me of being stuck up or arrogant, this is simply a shortened version of the greeting used in the movie “TRON” where everyone said, “Greetings, program.”). It usually gets me an odd look, but everyone thinks I’m a little weird, anyway.
Ironically, I have caught myself starting to say aloud things like “ROFL” or “LOL.” This is directly linked to the fact that I spend a lot of time talking to friends on the internet, and that is the accepted slang that is used…
I would say that the only thing that I cannot handle is true illiteracy. For example, I have been going over to a friend’s house, and one of the other families has a sign outside their door that simply annoys the hell out of me. It is to a water delivery service, and it reads: “Please don’t leave me no water unless you see a empty jug here. Have a BLESS day.” Mind you, I understand what this illiterate moron is trying to say, however, there are RULES to the English/American language, and they are trampling all over them. And they have two children. YIKES!
Carlo