A friend asked me to go to IKEA with her. She was looking for something or other to buy and though I had lots to do, I hadn’t spent much time with this friend lately and thought we would have a fun “experience” together. We also have two other mutual friends that we haven’t spent time with either, so, I decided to call them both up and see if they wanted to go to IKEA with us.
Unbeknownst to me, friend A and friend B had just been to IKEA a few days before. Friend A had a lot of work to do too but decided it would be fun to spend time with my friend and I, making an outing of a friend’s need to buy something and have fun together.
Friend B has had many issues going on in his life and is having a really tough time. Friend B feels lonely. Friend B feels depressed. Friend B feels unloved. Friend B… you get the picture. When I called friend B and asked him to come to IKEA with our mutual friends for a couple of hours or so together.
Friend B responded that he had just been to IKEA two days before and had no need to buy anything. Buy anything? Who said anything about needing to buy anything? I tried to explain to friend B that it was an excuse, and opportunity to spend sometime together and we just so happened to be going to IKEA.
He just didn’t get it, so he didn’t go. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun together, my two friends and I. And friend A said that last night was the best time he had ever had at IKEA.
When I spoke to friend B this morning, I told him that we had had fun the night before being together at IKEA and that it would have been fun if he had come with us. To this he answered almost indignantly, “but I told you, I had already gone a couple days before with friend A, why would I have gone again?”
He just doesn’t get it.
One thing for sure, life changes and so must the way we look at it.