Ex-friends

Ex-friends

The greatest debaters in Stuy history, at least whilst we were busy admiring them back in high school, were Hanna and David. As good as we were, it's hard to say we clearly surpassed them. Then again, they had the benefit of myth on their side, and we had yet to accumulate our legend. We did some legendary things too I'd like to think, like bowing out of the semi-final of the TOC.

Anyway, I was surprised by the brutally potent scorn in this letter today, from Hanna Rosin to the pre-Jayson Blair falsifier extraordinaire, Steve Glass.

I'll comment on the personal aspect, which is that it reminds me of some other guy I once knew, was friendly with, and was shocked to find had betrayed me. At which point my reservations about the guy became primary complaints. In the ensuing dispute he expressed a lot of the feelings you see Rosin accusing Glass of here. And I was amused to find that I had the same ultimate judgment on the dude as Rosin wants to keep as her closing shot: that in all his best efforts to act contrite and help me move past my anger, he left it evident that he wasn't all that different than before (and still had that 'disease to please' thing going). The difference, I guess, is that Glass didn't stalk Hanna around for a couple of years.

But it's nice that things vary. A recent reconnection with an old chum seems to have taken a completely novel form, where there are one or two polite exchanges...then nothing. As if there were a legal commitment involved. Elsewhere things have developed to totally supersede the chilled period. Yet elsewhere besides there are people that never seemed to warm back up.

It feels bad to lose people that you were friendly with, but I guess that's just one indication that time is passing. Your oldest friends start meaning more and more as they get rarer.