“Well, we’re lost… and it’s probably just a matter of time before someone decides to shoot us.” 

Life can be absurd. Grim. Ironic. People, circumstances, ailments come along and shoot us down. When things’re going smoothly, we might knock on wood, brace ourselves and think: It’s just a matter of time before 🌋🧨🤯. Yeah, Gary Larson’s quote from The Far Side is blunt, and doom ‘n gloom, but so often, we can feel lost—consumed by anxiety and frustration—and suddenly, we can’t stomach a thing, not even the food we eat.

It’s ok to not be ok. And here, Mr. Larson masterfully weaves humor into this fact. Here, he hints at the fact we can surrender to our situation by chuckling at our own fears and anxieties and turn a bleak moment into one of wry amusement…

… but with one crucial element—

A bonafide friend. A life companion. Someone—even a stranger—who can be all these things in our moment of doom: 

Someone with a distinct distaste for the trends and the talk and tastes of the rest, and a wholehearted affinity and affection for you, as an individual.

Someone who doesn’t give a hoot’s hoot about your image, success, reputation or lack thereof, because they know—deep down—how we all really are. 

Someone who gets that Life is largely filled with pain, uncertainty, and mistakes and who doesn’t (or won’t) pretend otherwise (knowing all too well they’re our unmistakeable gateways for growth). And therefore someone who’ll listen, commiserate, take your sad clammy hand in theirs and invite you to a fully-loaded cocktail (and/or dessert).

Someone who knows there is no point in being proud. Who has no problem admitting and confronting their own loneliness, sorrows, insecurities, guilts or regrets. And as such, can be genuinely empathetic with you.

And similarly, someone who doesn’t (or at least no longer) clings to appearing perfect, or perfectly “normal,” but who embodies and appreciates “what you see is what you get.” And so, makes you feel completely at ease.

Someone with whom you can share your strangest, most regretted or shameful secrets, and with whom you can rest-assured will immediately and intuitively understand without a second thought.

Someone who knows all too well things don’t always go smoothly, and who won’t insist that it will be that way. But who instead finds a way to help you shake off the despair with a hearty laugh, a shake of the tail feather and (a very dirty martini).  

Someone, who is interested in who you actually are, and not their idea of you. 

What can we say. On the far side of life, the right friend/companion can turn our gloomiest of dooms into the greatest gift of all—a real connection. 

SO FAR SO GOOD.