After All What Are "Friends" For?

(From Ray X X-Rayer #135.)


I mentioned to a "friend" how I hated living in Plattsburgh, NY.

This is a person who is not rich but not poor either.  He can afford to take two weeks off to go to Florida, a nice break from the long six months of winter around here. On some weekends he travels to Montreal for a change of scenery.

So it was so easy for him to say to me:  "If you don't like it just move!".

Yes, the answer is so simple, so doable.

I've been living with a fixed limited income for years.  I don't have the financial resources to just get up and relocate to a better place.

Recently I moved to a new apartment just a few blocks away from my old place.  A short move that still has set me back financially.

After living in the same apartment for over two decades and being treated like crap by my landlord I decided I had enough.  My previous apartment was in a building with a flat roof that leaked different five times into my apartment over the years.  The roof would be fixed, time would pass, and it turned out the fix wasn't permanent.  With the last flood I wanted to move into another unit in the building where the ceiling didn't shower rainwater but the landlord said no.

Apparently you really build up positive karma when you're a good tenant, paying rent on time, not causing any problems.

It was stressful finding someone to help me move, getting a pickup truck to haul my stuff.  I told another "friend" how again and again my plan to move was being held up by this one major factor.  I would get a lead that turned out to be a dead end.  I wasn't whining about my fate. I didn't say that I was giving up; I was still pressing on.  I only stated the basic facts of the situation.

My "friend" replied:  "You're being too negative."

Once again another person so well off compared to me who had no understanding what it's like to live with limited resources.  He could easily hire a moving company to do all the work.

Before the move I had to throw out a lot of stuff I had accumulated over two decades plus. Even after the move I have an excess of material I have to purge.

But there's material I don't want to trash, my writing and photography.  Like any creative person I want to leave something behind that others might appreciate.

The day may be coming that it's all going into the dumpster.  It seems to be the only way to escape.

One of my real friends took the opportunity to get away.  He had the money to relocate to a place where a new job was waiting.  He summed up his feelings this way: "Now I don't have to worry about dying in Plattsburgh."

I've never been alone in hating this podunk pimple.

Others have moved away but didn't properly plan their escape.  They ended up returning.  And regretting that decision.

When I leave it will be forever, no looking back.

There are better places where to die than Plattsburgh.