A Visit

A good friend–and that’s the understatement of the year– is coming to visit next week. The 2+ years we’ve gone without seeing each other is a new record, and one I’m slightly troubled by, if only because it means we’re getting to that age where things move so fast we begin to ignore those “bff” pledges from way back when. Like me, he has one foot in popular culture and one in academia. And each of those two feet has its own one smaller foot in something and another in something else. It was with him that I learned to embrace everything, and to criticize it, too.

The timing of his visit couldn’t be better. It’s the first time in my life that I’ve come to find the weight of infinite open-mindedness unbearable. No, I don’t mean I’m questioning relativism. That was never an issue: being open to everything never meant avoiding making judgments of value. I am, however, reluctantly beginning to accept that most people settle down into a style, a career, a belief, a property, a spouse, a pattern. And they’ll try to box you in, too. Regardless if they succeed, they’ll nonetheless ultimately box you out. Not this friend, though. I can’t wait to reconnect.