Paradise

Mohamed was a student of mine in 2009 and he became a close friend over the past couple of years.  Creating a cross-culture/religion friendship is not easy and we definitely hit many bumps along the road.  For most of the time, however, our friendship was good for each other and we certainly have similar personalities.

I bought him this t-shirt:

Little did I realize how ironic the gift would be.

While our friendship was enduring Mohamed was always insecure.  He'd be jealous of any friend I spent any time with and that even followed me to the US.  Last week I broke down as he again accused me of liking another friend more.  I thought my breakdown would be the end of it; he'd understand that he has no reason to be insecure.  Unfortunately, that only lasted until my second day back here.

Now I realize that we are simply incompatible as friends.  I thought things would get better when he recently started a romantic relationship but alas, it only became worse.

I am not blameless; I am sure I did things to lead to the deterioration of our friendship.  I certainly had many moments of anger.  As the anger has now subsided I now feel the loss of a good friend.

*****

Last week Mohamed posted this video on youtube:

I watched it and didn't understand.  I posted on his wall:

You know I like Coldplay... but one of the reasons I stopped watching music videos is that I often don't get it... I have no idea what this is supposed to mean!

He replied:

I think it means that when you are around the people you like or your friends then it is like Paradise so he is searching for his friends to find Paradise :)

I wish Mohamed the best; I hope he finds his elephants... I hope he finds Paradise.