"Don't Fool With Fools Who'll Turn Away // Keep All Good Company"

"I hardly noticed Sally as we parted company."

It's a song of friends and of love. It's a song about a person who becomes consumed with work and his name/reputation. He had achieved financial success, but at the expense of the loss of his love and his friends.

So, the question is what is 'good' company? For years I had always maintained a select friend of friends. Not all of these folks were people I would introduce to my everyday crowd or to my family. Some people are just not mingle-worthy. There was one whom I had known for years or even decades... someone I had invited to travel with me, to dine with me, to watch my animals while I was gone, and to go to holiday parties as my plus one. I had to let my guard down during a 3-day weekend when he stayed at my house while I was away. He invited friends over, smoked on the porch, slept in my bed (he was assigned to the futon), and didn't notice that the dog had an eye infection. I even gave this friend cash for incidentals while I was gone.

His bad behavior was uncovered by my tenant who asked the straightforward question of him, "WTF is wrong with you? Don't you see this dog is sick?" I guess he was too busy smoking with his bud on the front porch. Said friend left early and the tenant took the dog to the clinic. Never heard back from the friend. He knows he had done me dirt. Never apologized... in fact he wrote, "No body speaks to me in that tone!"

Love has also come and gone. Most of the time, I chalk that up to having dodged the bullet. I think of four individual times when that had happened... the third one was at a time when I was actually planning on moving in with the person and he had a change of heart... took all of his belongings from my apartment and sent me a dear John letter. The last one left me because I had said, "I love you," without any solicitation. That was buzz kill for the relationship.

These days I'm actually happy that my life is not pulled by the forces of hormones. I still love my friends and value my friendships, but the heart isn't given away so quickly.