Why can't people just stay the same as they always were?
I've been with my church for about a year and a half, and in that time I've seen my friends and I go through an amazing mental change. For most of my friends, this is a wonderful thing. They've gained compassion, forgiveness, and confidence. They are all taking massive steps forward. All except for one. As near as I can tell, he's going through the same thing as us, except backward.
The compassion and forgiveness are leaking from him like water in a fishbowl in Iraq. He gets mad at stupid stuff. He goes off on people for nothing at all. He explodes on girls, and even his parents, for God's sake. Then he gets pissed when he doesn't get called when the group wants to do something.
It's so hard to put up with his infuriating remarks and idealism. He seems to have forgotten that the Earth revolves around the sun, abandoning this simple logic for the notion that the planet revolves around him. And by God, we had better not be anything less than perfect or we will hear about it. While you're at it, don't bother offering an opposing view to his, because it is obviously wrong and ridiculous, seeing as how Cory Pond is indeed a unified expert on all things.
I'm proud of my performance so far. I have said nothing to attack him or in my own defense. I love it. It drives him insane.
I wish, however, that I didn't have to be silent. I wish he were the same as he always was.
An extraordinary thing happened after volleyball practice today (incidentally, a practice that he had gotten pissed off during and left halfway through). Practice came to a close, I walked outside, and it was raining. Raining! I simply love the rain. That church parking lot in the middle of White House, Tennessee smelled of the essence of spring. I felt my spirits lift, and then I became truly happy. The rain fell in small drops, showering the world like the mercy of God himself. Then, at that moment, I didn’t care that one of my closest friends had become an egomaniacal jerk. I was reminded of the single point that he had forgotten.
That point, of course, was that in two years it won't matter one way or the other, and if he can't treat other people like human beings, that's his loss.