Chapter 17 Section 16

In less than an hour, Jean-Marc returned.He announced the news to Chantal, "I received a letter this morning, saying that Von is dead." Chantal almost cheered the letter because it was a serious letter.It can dim her stupidity a bit.She pulled Jean-Marc into the living room and sat down facing her. Chantal said, "You're uneasy after all." "No," said Jean-Marc, "rather, I am disturbed that I am not disturbed." "And you haven't forgiven him yet?" "I can forgive everything he does. But that's not essential. I told you I had a strange feeling of joy when I made up my mind never to go to him again. I I felt like I was as cold as an icicle. That made me happy. And now, his death still hasn't changed that feeling.

"You scare me, you really scare me." Jean-Marc got up, went for a bottle of brandy, and poured two glasses.He raised one of the glasses, drank it, and said, "At the end of my hospital visit, he started thinking about the past. He reminded me of something I said when I was sixteen. When he As I was saying that, I suddenly understood the true meaning of friendship. Friendship is essential to the memory function of a person itself. Remembering our past, let it always stay with us, as they say Yes, it is indispensable to the maintenance of a complete self. In order to ensure the integrity of the self and to ensure that its contents are not easily lost, memory also needs to be watered as often as flowers. This nourishment requires regular contact with past witnesses. through communication, that is, with friends. They are our mirrors, our memories. We ask nothing of them, but they polish the mirror again and again so that we can see ourselves in it. But I don't give a damn about the things I did in high school. What I wanted from my teenage years, maybe even my childhood, was something else entirely. I've always believed that friendships are worth more than anything else. Be tall. Between reality and friends, I always choose my friends. I may not say that sometimes, but I really think so in my heart. Now, I know that those proverbs are outdated. In Alexandre Dumas' musketeer, Arban, perhaps rightly, a friend of Patrick's, and even Sancho Pancha, who, despite all his disagreements with his master, He was also a true friend of his master. But that proved nothing to us, and in those days I was so pessimistic that I would have preferred reality to friendship.

He drank another glass of wine and said: "Friendship, for me, has been a stronger proof of existence than ideology, religion, and nationality. In Dumas' book, the four The two friends often found themselves having to take sides with their friends, and they had to fight each other. But that didn't affect their friendship. They worked secretly, tactfully, and without causing damage to their respective factions. Helping friends. They regard friendship as more important than reality, or career, or orders from superiors. It is higher than the king, higher than the queen, higher than everything else.

Chantal kissed his hand lightly.After a pause, he continued: "Dumas wrote this story two hundred years after the era of the musket gunners. Does he already feel a little nostalgic for the era full of friendship that has passed away? Or, for friendship? Did the forgetting happen only in recent years?" "I can't answer your question. Because friendship is not a problem for women." "What do you mean by that?" "Like I said, friendship is the men's problem. It's their fantasy, not ours." Jean-Marc fell silent, took a swig of brandy, and then returned to his subject: "How does friendship come about? It should be a union in adversity, one that does not expose itself to its enemies." A union that appears helpless. Perhaps it is no longer necessary."

"But the enemy is always there." "Yes, but they are invisible. Like bureaucrats, laws. When they decide to build an airport outside your window, or when they want to fire you, what can a friend do for you? If someone helps you , that too is invisible and anonymous. A social service system, a consumer watchdog organization, a legal consultancy. Friendship is no longer evidence of heroic deeds. The kind of friend who helps your wounded on the battlefield, or Gone is the chance to draw your saber from the scabbard and help a friend fight back the brigands. Our lives no longer face great danger, but neither do friendships.

"If that's true, it's time for you and Fowler to reconcile." "Frankly, if he knew I was blaming him like this, he wouldn't understand. When everyone else was attacking me, he didn't say a word. But I have to say it fairly: his silence is Right. I was told he also bragged that he didn't give in to the perverted behavior directed at me and didn't say anything to hurt me. So he had a clear conscience. He must have felt that when I inexplicably stopped going to him Hurt. I had more hope in him than his neutrality. If he stood with me in this bitter, malevolent world to defend my interests, he was in danger of falling out of favor or being ostracized How could I ask him to do that? Especially when he is still my friend! How inconsiderate I am! In other words: it is rude. Because friendship has been hollowed out of its tradition The connotation of that, those days transformed it into a mutual agreement. In short, an agreement of politeness. So it is impolite to ask a friend to do something that would embarrass or displease him.

"Yes, that's the way it is. That's why you talk about it without any bitterness or sarcasm." "I'm not being ironic because that's the way it is." "If someone attacks you with hostility, or if you are unjustly condemned, you can expect several reactions from people: some will join in the slaughter, others will carefully pretend they don't know anything , heard nothing. Afterwards, you will continue to contact and communicate with them. The second type of people, cautious and diplomatic, they are your friends. This is the standard by which friends are judged today. Jean-Marc, in fact, I Already knew this."