When it comes down to it, you really just want your best friend by your side. In my 28 years I’ve gotten this advice many times. “Marry your best friend.” Of course you marry the person you love, but love isn’t always as easy as it is when you’re dating or even newlyweds. Love that used to be romantic dinners and roses becomes eating leftovers you don’t like and picking up wet towels off the floor for the 8,257,496 time without complaining (it won’t do any good anyway).
A friend of mine recently got into a tiff with her significant other, whom we’ll call John. Without going into details, she.was.pissed. Then she said “But at the end of the day I only want to be pissed at John.” And that’s exactly it. No matter how bad things get, when it’s all said and done there’s just that one person who you still want to wake up next to regardless of what happened when you went to bed.
Some day when we’re old and crabby and all we do is complain about the weather and our orthopedic shoes you want someone who is still willing to listen to all your crabbiness, provided their hearing aid works. And that’s your best friend. I worked retail during college and I was helping an elderly woman once when out of the blue she said, “Someday, honey, you’ll be old like me and all you’ll have left is conversation. Marry your best friend so you always have someone to talk to.”
Looks fade. Hip replacements and the need for extra oxygen make sex a thing of the past. Even when our hearing goes and we can’t get out of bed anymore what you want is your best friend holding your hand. At some point without realizing it the love that used to be leftovers and wet towels is simple again. It’s a cup of coffee and a kiss on the forehead. And it’s exactly enough.
I absolutely love this post and couldn't agree more!
ReplyDeleteI also tend to remind people who say "marry your best friend" that it is a double edged sword. Sometimes in an argument, thanks to a certain comfort level, you say things to your best friend that you wouldn't say to anyone else... good, bad, and ugly. It's always important to keep that in mind both when you are the one with a sharp tongue or when he is the one doing the lashing.