Nobody knows you when you are down and out...

This is true, but some kind people always show up in this world, sensing your pain, and try to find a way to help. That is worth paying attention to.

Those who are on top of their game have a different problem. Everybody knows (and loves) you when you are succeeding.

As fate would have it, I've lived a life of many ups and many downs. At this point, being a pattern recognizer, I notice who is my friend in the bad times and who is there for me only when conditions are good.

Please do not read any judgment here. I am no different from anyone else. If someone is sinking, I'm not sure whether I should get in his or her way to the bottom. It feels like as burden I just don't need. When a friend is soaring to the top, I feel good for them, and am happy if we can somehow share that experience.

One lesson about emotional life that somehow eluded me for 50 years is that our emotions quite naturally cycle up and down all the time. My then-girlfriend taught me that lesson in a conversation in the parking lot on Pass Road one night in January. I always turned to her with my most naive and embarrassing emotional questions, because I knew she would tell me the truth. Just as a teacher would tell a child what they needed to learn.

I only wish I had found out these kinds of things when I was young, rather than the lessons I learned as described in recent posts about my childhood.

Luckily these days I am on top of my game, earning plenty of money, deeply engaged intellectually with the ideas that interest me, with many caring friends and a great family life, though I also am nursing a badly fractured heart.

But, from here, I am not worrying about me. I'm observing all the pain around me, on the street, in the form of people cast aside as casually as the wrappers from candies from the corner store. I look into the eyes of every person I pass on the street. Trust me, as the singer tells it, "Nobody knows you when you are down and out." And, nobody loves you if she fears you are headed there...

Many others, however, love you as you once again ascend in material terms. Both experiences, in my experience, suck big-time.