Question of the Week: In Touch

While arguing with a close friend on the telephone, she gets angry and hangs up. Assuming she is at fault and makes no attempt to contact you, how long would you wait to get in touch with her?

I guess that depends on how close "close" really is. If it's someone I'm in constant contact with, I'd probably wait 'til the next day. By constant contact, I mean at least daily. If it was someone that I spoke with around once a week or just a few times a month, I'd wait longer.

Whatever the case, I wouldn't bring up the argument again. That kind of thing is petty and childish. It's in the past. Whatever it was, it was bad enough to make one of us angry enough to hang up on the other. It isn't worth bringing up again. Well, in most cases I would say it isn't worth bringing up again. Sometimes there are arguments that need to be hashed out and need to come to some kind of conclusion. You need to either reach a point where you can agree, agree to disagree, or sever ties.

We're friends with the people we're friends with because we have something in common. But we never have everything in common. There are always going to be certain issues that no two people will always come to an agreement on. And that's okay. It's the mix of sameness and difference that make these people so much fun to be around. But then there are rare occasions when a difference can mean the end of a relationship. Those times are sad, but they happen. It's why we have certain friends for certain seasons in our lives. How many of us are still friends with the people we knew in grade school? high school? college? that first job?

Some friends stick around for the long haul. Those friends put in a lot of time and energy and work into the relationship. More often than not, though, we have friends who are with us for a while, then one day we look and realize we haven't spoken in years. Crazy how that happens. I guess that's why Facebook is such a great thing. It's a quick way to check in on someone you haven't talked to since 1987. Everyone should send a thank you note to Mark Zuckerburg.

Did anyone really know Mark Zuckerburg's name before The Social Network came out? Just wondering...

*Question of the Week comes from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.