Hello class.

Jonathan here with some important announcements.

Today we're going to try something new. Something that I haven't done before.

....Ready?

We're going to discuss a serious issue and do something about it.

Nah, I'm just messing with you.

Instead it'll be just the usual humdrum of side issues and wry comments.

But I'll make a deal with you guys. I will do some sort of holiday special in a few weeks if enough people vote for it.

So fingers crossed on that one. (It means less work for me if you say no, so either way I win. :) )

Anyway we will now proceed to the actual article.

The other day a friend of mine was jogging around the park. It's a small ritual of his. Every weekend, he goes out running for about an hour and then spends the next three hours convincing himself that this is a sufficient workout regimen and that he's not losing his "excellent" physique.

He's not a very fast runner, only does about 5 miles or so for the hour that he runs.

But every weekend he goes back out there and keeps at it.

I don't know how much it helps him, but it is admirable in its own way.

There's another friend of mine who loves to take pictures. Every week he posts dozens of them. Just about every time I go any where with him, he always stops me to take pictures. After he finishes taking his pictures, he asks me why I'm not. I don't answer and he doesn't listen. The question doesn't matter. It's the question behind that bothers me.

A third friend of mine is the most antisocial person you'll ever meet, literally. His maximum allowance of others in close proximity to him is none. He doesn't need other people at all. If you ask him why he doesn't hang around others, he'll say, because I don't want to.

The guy is brilliant, smart and clever in ways. It's interestingly complicated how those things go together isn't it?

Some guy I know is a real bulldog. He never takes no for an answer. In fact, he doesn't take answers period. If he asks you a question, he doesn't want to know what your answer is, because it's wrong. The question was the answer, and his intent is the answer. Anything else is nonexistent.

One of my friends is a real puzzle to me. I can't read him at all. Every one of his actions are inscrutable. I can't predict what he'll do. I don't know what he does. He's friendly, warm, cold, manipulative, anxious, confident, funny, sarcastic, deaf, critical, analytic all at the same time. It drives me out of my mind.

He's a great person.

One of my friends keeps slipping away from me. I can feel it every time we meet. Every day, a little farther, every day, a little further.

I suppose it's possible that you could put together all these pieces and construct a person, but would that person be me? They say you're the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

Oh wait, there's 6 of them.

Sincerely,

Not Jonathan.

(Or Jonathan. Whichever gives it more meaning.)