Saturday, October 12, 2013

Tenuous.. at best

The complexity of human relationships never fails to amaze me.

There are so many layers and factors that define the bonds between people, and when the tenuous nature of those bonds change and change again over time, the relationships ebb and rise in ways that are inconceivable to an outsider.
Even in stories as old the Mahabharata, there is no telling when a friend becomes foe, and foe, a friend. It takes so little to make or break a relationship. Childhood admiration, petty jealousy or winning a silly game... They go such a long way and last a lifetime in deciding the bonds between people.
Setting store by so much, and yet so little, that brethren become sworn enemies, only to turn around and love each other again. And yet, do they? Truly?
Is it possible to forgive and forget, those bits of hurt and snubs? Is it possible to forget those hugs and cuddles and shared laughter of yesterday for hurtful words and actions of today?
Today’s stranger becomes more important than yesterday’s familiar. The new becomes so much more endearing than the old.
Social beings that we are, there is so much importance on the nuances of who said what, and how.
Is blood really thicker water?  Then we wouldn’t have so many families break apart. Or would we?
Growing up (or old) with someone, you would think you know them as well as yourself. And yet, people change, and so do the relationships. The old often give way to the new, why can’t it just... grow... to accommodate both the old and the new?