The Ending of Nice Things

The Ending of Nice Things

Is it just me that thought that the title was majorly melodramatic? Like "ALL of the nice things will end?" Never mind.

I woke up on Monday morning to discover that a small band I really liked and had an agreement to do street art for and had spoken to a bit, had split up. (They released an EP though, look them up, they were called "Uptown Mayhem".) Over that same weekend, a couple at the heart of my friendship group split up and split the friendship group up with it. Neither of these things I had expected to end, especially at that time. I guess I'm not one of those pessimists that constantly thinks about the good things going away. I tend to become complacent.

A cool guy and generally fabulous person you have to have heard of, called Dr Seuss (or technically Theodor Seuss Geisel - I thought that I would be disappointed with his real name, but apparently not) once said a thing. And that things was "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Sometimes, he is right. For example, with bands and books. When My Chemical Romance split and pulled my heart apart with them it wasn't the nicest of things. It was really quite majorly sucky.

But the fact that they had existed in the first place was good and we still have access to old music that they produced, old videos they made, et cetera. All of the good things that they did, for me at least, made the sadness that I felt over their split lessen.

With some things, it is even more true. For example, when I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and I realised that there would never be another Harry Potter film or book, I was sad, definitely. But when I heard that they were making more, I was annoyed, angry even. Whilst it probably won't stop me buying a ticket and watching the damn film, I appreciated that it had ended in the right place. I wasn't only smiling because it had happened, but I was smiling because it ended. It wasn't going to become another franchise endlessly exploited for money (or so I thought).

But does this apply to everything? In my opinion, no, it doesn't.

Last year one of my closest friends stopped being in the after school club we were both in. We didn't go to the same school, but we became very good friends, and basically shared everything. When I look back on our email threads, I realise that we were probably quite annoying about it, but neither of us really cared. And when they stopped being in the ski team, we stopped talking. I have no idea why, I tried emailing them and they didn't respond.

And things like that, that didn't help me in the long run, but that did cause upset in the long run - are they really worth it?

I am not doubting the original friendship, in this example, and I am certainly not endorsing closing yourself off because of past experiences.

But in my opinion, some things, you can't be expected to smile over. Life flings shit at you and asks to take it, and you do, but there is no need to preen and smarm about it, acting like everything is okay. Sometimes, it isn't. And regretting things is fine too.