Friend of A Friend

Michelle Manning

The Mind of a 1 Percenter - Volume 1

IG: Michellemanninging

My initial idea was to talk about that weird phenomena of passing an acquaintance, that friend of a friend, in the most unexpected places.

The random store years after graduating high school, the town across the river in a state across the country from your hometown, the borough across the other river in a place with 8.4 million people traversing every which way.

I am in no way qualified to state the odds of this but, they seem astronomical. And then on Thursday, my partner was playing video games, as they do sometimes, with a friend from back home. A friend of this friend joined them online, and they talked as they do while I retired to our bed to read.

That night, I finished my tango with Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, written by the captivatingly talented, Isabel Wilkseron. In short, I felt surprisingly content after reading about our nation’s discontents as Wilkerson details the stark and abhorrent ways the generations before us and present generations refuse to dismantle systemic racism and continue to sweep white supremacy under the rug.

I fell asleep with a calmness that was strange and welcomed as this year of overbearing anxiety comes to a close. In the morning my partner speaks of the friend of the friend. This friend of the friend is a police officer.

They talked about, complained about, states moving towards ending qualified immunity. They talked about, contemplated moving to another state as other police officers are. Moving to conservative states, red states, states that are red, white, and blue, through and through. And I welcome my newly clingy friend, anxiety, into the new day. If such a trend is true, it would be unsurprising, as all we’ve truly been taught is to run away and ignore our discontents.

You’re in America, baby, follow the meek path shone by those darling gaslights and you’ll be alright.