If you've ever seen the 1950 movie, "Harvey" with Jimmy Stewart playing Elwood. P. Dowd its a comedy-drama about a man who has a puca, named Harvey. Its an invisible 6'3" white rabbit, that he has as a friend. People think he's crazy, as he has these supposed imaginary conversations with "Harvey". I cannot remember the ending, for I saw it in the 1960s as a child.
This leads me to what the writer Mary Chase of the screenplay written in 1944, may have intended; however, it could be left up to the interpretation of the viewers.
In my mind as a child, I didn't think talking to an imaginary friend was crazy. And I believe we all do this, even in our adult lives yet we don't usually tell anyone. At least, the older people I treated throughout my near 30 years of doing so did do this.
Some said, they would speak to their dead spouses. Women were more comfortable with it. I can say I am. In doing so, there is this near divine or sometimes divine connection to altered thoughts. I believe this helps us maneuver through our lives to help us remain intact and sane as humanely possible.
In stating such, I've decided to disconnect from four friends who were fairly close. Only two have met each other once and neither of them know each other. As well, they are in four different states in our country and hundreds of miles away from me and each other. Each one has known me from nearly 30 years to nearly 45 years. Imagine that? Its truly something. Its nothing I've done wrong. Its that I truly have become most enlightened due to deep losses throughout my life; which has come to a head in the past 21 months.
Too, I was at this impasse before as a child, when I had learned this truth. We/friends are on different paths and sometimes you need to break from things and/or people who you might have cared about and perhaps they for you. Because you realize you've been misconstrued. I'm figuring age does that to most people, they get crotchity, angry, scared. Which could be about their realization that death has a clearer, closer picture with them in sight.
Too, Their vision is not yours. And you either decide to realize it and leave or stay. Or you decide not to realize it. Most people I've noticed decide not to leave or not to realize it.
In this the realization is that a person is truly alone in this world. For me, it is easier to disconnect from the illusion of 'a close friend' in human form.
When I was a child, my mother warned me that writers had sad lives, and so sometimes it appears that way. But I imagine so could anyone else have a sad life. For me at this juncture, I realize its time for no more attempting close friendships or letting people in. No more communication of any depth with them. Because most people I have found don't want depth in their lives. There is no exploring that beckons them to start and pursue continuance of understanding the world or the newness of it. Depth is where most people stop, and that can be at any age.
There's some limit in most of us that we allow. That limit in those who lack depth is their lack of faith in knowing it may be worth their exploration into the depth that they lack to explore.
People get old like that at various ages, people have always been that way, or they are overly indoctrinated. Whatever it is, I refuse to stay with them while I'm on my life's path. We will always have uneasy feelings, but sometimes those uneases happen too often and the hammer comes down and you have to stay on your path, because your path is not theirs its your's. And if their path is disruptive to yours, then its time to vacate the closeness of those friendships.
So, maybe its time to add a "Harvey" to our lives. Because in that imaginary world there's more depth, understanding, constant exploration and faith that we may be limited to if we stay in the illusion of having close friends. Too, as in philosophical writings/teachings such as the story of Job friends are not always what they seem. They may say or do things out of fear, not faith. ---Jody-Lynn Reicher
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