A manifesto

So, I have to rant somewhere. I loved a friend. She was strong and lived her life largely, creatively, artistically. She canned. She welded her muffler. She built her own walls. She loved to read in front of her fire. Her house was universally seen as a welcoming place, a place where calmness, order, and homeyness was cool.

Then, her husband left, and her world changed. She lost 120 pounds in 6 months. She took up smoking. She also began moving men into her home (in 6 months, she is on number 2). Both men have been commanding and rude. When I visit her home, the spirit of the place has changed and I feel that the substance is gone. She no longer does the creative stuff. She hangs in bars and drinks. She says that this is really who she is, before she was unhappy, but she looks unhappy now. Her first preoccupation is her looks.

I feel as if I have lost her. Her home is no longer welcoming, but sad and empty. She does not have the sense of peace that I saw in her before.

Please, send good thoughts her way, and mine. I don't know how to be a friend to her now.