Ode to Kathy Mattea

Who? Kathy who?

Kathy Mattea, multiple grammy & CMA winner, famous for songs like 18 Wheels and a Dozen Roses (catchy, I know), Lonesome Standard Time, and Walkin' Away A Winner, also helped lead the country music industry into the HIV/AIDS fight with her activism. However, it's Mattea's song "Standing Knee Deep in a River (Dying of Thirst)" is the focus of my first blog entry of 2007.

For those of your country music fans (I am not one), you might recall some of the lyrics.

Friends I could count on, I could count on one hand,
With a leftover finger or two.
I took 'em for granted, Let 'em all slip away.
Now where they are, I wish I knew.

They roll by just like water,
And I guess we never learn.
Go through life parched and empty,
Standin' knee deep in a river and dyin' of thirst.

While it's an early 90's song, 15 year-ish later it still holds a lot of truth.

Think about it. Your core group of really good friends (or Lover, if you are MQB) are probably limited to a handfull of people. I would guess 2-4 max. They're the ones you turn to for advice, comfort, and support. These are the folks that would help you murder that annoying coworker and hide the body. Then you have tier two. Maybe 4-6 more that you occasionally have dinner or drinks with that you share idle gossip with. They're the ones that would probably not be willing to help you commit a felony, but would turn a blind eye to the crime. Then comes a layer of superficial acquaintances. This number greatly varies from 6 or more. They're the ones who'd smile in support as the men in blue are handcuffing you, because they snitched and know you can't get them from behind prison walls.

Criminal references aside, it's a very interesting social network in which most of us operate. I do have friends I can count on, that I can count on one hand (both hands actually), and yeah I may have a leftover finger or two. However, I'm very thankful for them.

Over the weekend, I hung out with Thom and we had some insightful conversations about friends and life and being there for others. In the past, some of his friends haven't been true friends. Likewise I haven't been as true as I needed to some of my friends. Totally different situations, but it helped us both realize with a new year, we need a new outlook on relationships, especially with those who we call friend.

So even if you can't be as fashionable, cute, or pun-ny as those gals on Sex and the City, don't worry, your Samantha, Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte are out there...just waiting to be counted on.