"The Outlooks More Hopeful When You Come Around"

It's not the done thing, especially in the British Isles, but here's a FACT I really like about myself.

I'm awfully honest. I don't mean honest in the sense that I always tell the truth. Or that I'll always say what I'm thinking. God forbid. Nothing as simple as that. Or that I wouldn't lie to a Nazi in order to protect the  gay, black, jewish, paraplegic friend (Nigel)  who is living in my attic. (Don't ask!)

It's more at a fundamental level. If I think that I'm doing or saying something that gives  you the wrong impression, or delusional ideas about me, I'll go out of my way to redress the balance. If I say something, and later think that the thing I said was bullshit, and if it's not something really trivial, I will tell you. If I one hundred percent believe something to be true, and preach it from the rooftops, and then change my mind, or get a bit of doubt, I would rather look very stupid, than pretend that my views were still the same. I care that stuff is true. Not surface true, really true. I'm so honest that sometimes I'll lie to protect people who can't cope with true. Including myself, ironically. Because honesty, like any other quality, is not an island, and I would be lying to myself if I pretended that honesty isn't always appropriate. Often gentleness and patience and simple friendship are needed. I have mixed abilities with those qualities. But it's the honesty bit that I'm patting myself on the back for.

And this might seem a bit narcissistic, in fact it almost certainly is, but I think that the mixed bag of qualities I have, are ones that I look for in The friend. I don't mean A friend. We're talking Soul Mate here. The one I've never found. And I've come to suspect  that  the term Soul Mate, is in fact simply a description for someone who is really a twin brother or sister. A slightly different reflection of oneself. Somebody, in fact, who doesn't actually exist. Even if you happen to have an actual twin brother or sister.

In other words, Soul Mate is probably an unrealistic expectation to put out into the world, or to put onto the shoulders of the folk who qualify as friends, despite never quite being... well, you know...me.

So, in all honesty, I'm here to say, that  I've decided that you qualify as The Friend if, to return to my title, "the outlooks more hopeful when you come around". That simplifies matters. And suddenly I find I've got a lot more friends. Result!



"The outlooks more hopeful when you come around" is from my song When You Come Around" from my album A Human Being