Hello I'm Rich Brown and this is my personal website and blog. I'm just your simple, average, down to earth, professional, out gay man and aspiring circuit boy, living in Phoenix, Arizona with a few things to say while trying to find my place among all the scary, conservative, religious nuts in this sick and twisted world.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Friendship
Over the past year, the dynamics of our core group of friends has been evolving. It's not good or bad, it just is. It's something that happens with all groups of friends. We're all starting to branch out a bit, meeting new people, and doing the things we each feel are right for us at the moment. New friends, and boyfriends have been introduced, and with every new person the dynamic slightly changes for everyone.
I think many of us are starting to find ourselves going out and doing things on our own lately because interests are changing and to some degree, independent planning of travel and events is much easier then coordinating group trips, especially with the size, diversity and geographic location of everyone in our group. I can't say that I don't find myself missing the relationships that I once had with everyone in the past, but for Justin and I it's always been a slightly different experience because we entered this circle of friends already as a couple, with the rest of the guys all single. Now that there are more of us who are couples with new independent interests and additional stronger personalities, it's made it more difficult to retain the status quo.
"Each person follows an individual path. At any given stage in life, a person may find his path running side by side with another's. At a different stage, paths grow apart as individuals change, as interests change, as common ground become less and less. Then other paths, new paths may begin to parallel these new directions, as new common ground forms between different individuals. Friendship is an example of this: Friendships grow, become fast, then drift apart as interests change, while new friends are made. It does not mean that all friendships are fleeting, just as it does not mean that all friendships are lasting. Both fleeting or lasting: some are; some are not; most fall in between. Because individuals' paths change, sometimes in unforeseen directions, ... For interests change. Common ground disappears.."
Dennis L. McKiernan. Eye of the Hunter, Chapter 12, "Equinox", pp. 151-152.
I truly want to believe that the strength of the friendship among our core group will continue to remain strong, and while things may seem different or possibly even strained for some of us now, our bonds together remain very deep. Anyone who's ever had the pleasure to hang out with our circle has always left with a comment similar to "You guys are so much fun, you're a really dynamic & great group of friends." I've personally always considered this group of guys to be my family, and I feel fortunate to have them all of them in my life and to have had so many great memories with each of them over the years.
