I had this idea that the friends you make in childhood are friends for life.
Boy, was I wrong.
When I came down with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome at age 22, most of my friends dismissed me when I could no longer keep up with them. The empathy I got was usually from people in the second-half of life, often from those who barely knew me.
Now there’s Facebook. It’s a wonderful way to reconnect with friends from childhood. But some of my friends from childhood, from my teens, have no desire to reconnect. It’s painful when they refuse my friends requests, when they don’t return my phone calls. I’ve tried to stay in touch with several of my closest friends from my high school years and they have no desire to talk to me.
I think my conversion to Orthodox Judaism freaked them out (I’d rather blame the Jews than myself). And my blogging. I have become too dangerous. Too much trouble. Too much risk.
