Real And Alive! Here and Now

I have always been fascinated by the dynamics of this thing we call Friendship. How it starts, how it moves, what it does to us. How easily it is counterfeited!


Anyway, the week past was a crazy one for us at work. We had been notified a month ago that our employer would have to let some of us go on a redundancy and early retirement program.
At work , we always brag to each other about how well our "Alternative Programs" are doing so I was a bit surprised to see that we were all nervous about losing our primary income.

As you can imagine, it was a tough month,from June 17th to July 2oth; I tell you there is nothing sorrier than the sight of a grown man with 14 years service lamenting how he has not made any meaningful investment to ease the impending crash landing. And this after 14 years of lying to people about how well your maize farms are doing. It was really a month in "purgatory".

I tried to prepare my self and my family as best as I could. We went through our recurrent expenditure list and were amazed at how much of what seemed absolutely necessary on 16th June was struck off the list on he night of 17th June. First to go was our $72 monthly subscription for Pay TV. We also "discovered" that margarine could last twice as long if we applied it on one face instead of both faces of sliced bread.

Back to my point... 20July, 0800hrs: The air is still; No joke seems to be funny; People are exceptionally polite. This is the day.

There was a painful process of going into the HODs office to know your fate but within an hour the place was much more relaxed as the large majority had survived, including the maize farmer.

My relief was short lived. People were talking about a friend of mine, and how he had seemed shocked at being axed!!

What do you tell a friend who has just lost his job? If you are into small talk, you may consider something in the lines of ".. you will be OK... things will be OK... we will help...." Rubbish, in my opinion!

For 3 days,I could not find something worthwhile and true that I could say or do.

On Thursday morning, I dialed his number, and when he answered I told him the truth.

"My Friend , I don't Know what to say. . . "

"How are things there ? " he asked.

Then a miracle happened.

We just chatted. About his situation; about my new role; about his options; about his spirits... We actually talked about easy and tough things. What is more Human than that? I don't mean the moralist "humane" human. Just the Real, Person, here-and-now human. What can be as real as that? What can be as alive as that?