And Now for a Break from Our Regularly Scheduled Action

200th post. Right here. Right now.

It seems ironic for the subject at hand to fall at this particular point in my blogger life.

You see, today's post is not a happy post. It is tinged with a melancholy air brought about by my resignation to the fact that friendship isn't always reciprocated.

In fact, I've found myself in a situation where my *friendship* with another blogger has been abused to the point where I have no choice but to cut my losses and move on.

I've always tried to be a generous person. Sometimes, I can be generous to a fault.

Generosity can take many forms. Listening to a friend when things are rough. Providing support and encouragement when a friend undertakes a new endeavor. Lending a couple of dollars when a friend doesn't have enough cash to buy into that night's bloggerment.

I don't expect that generosity to be always be reciproated tit for tat. There have been times that I've had to rely on my friends when I was going through some rough patches. But hopefully my friends know that I would do the same for them in a heartbeat.

Here's the rub. I *do* have some expectations of my friends. The first and foremost of which is honesty. That is one of the virtues that doesn't require any skill or any personal net worth - it just requires purity of thought, purity of heart and purity of deed. Although it may be difficult for me to hear it, there are times when my friends need to call me out on my bullshit. I don't need a merry band of sycophants following me around. Similarly, if a friend tells me that s/he is going to do something, I expect that such thing will be done (absent unforeseen intervening circumstances).

Well, this particular person has lied to me repeatedly. At first, I made allowances. That's what friends do, right? But when it gets to the point where the lies are so prolific and so absurd as to no longer make any sense, that's when you have to step back and examine whether you can ever trust that person again.

In this case, I know that I can't. From what I've witnessed over the past several months, there are no signs that things will change. I even asked the person point blank yesterday, and I got another batch of lies in response.

So what does this mean for me? For my relationship with blogger world?

I'm skeptical. And I'm sorry that it has to be this way. There are plenty of you who I know are good people. There are plenty of you who I consider friends. But I'm at the point where I am so bewildered by the way that I have been treated, that each interaction is now laced with a tinge of hesitation.

It's not just about the money - the money that I lent to this blogger, which was subsequently used to back other bloggers. That's a bad debt that I have written off in my mind. I've written off bad debts before. I'd be a fool to say that it will never happen again. But I know now that I need to be more careful about doing that.

It's about the fact that I have given my time and my friendship to someone whom I can't trust.

Blogs are an interesting beast.

You can tell the blogiverse what you *think* the blogiverse wants to hear about you and reap the love and admiration that goes along with it. I used to be in the camp of people that were proud you, that supported you. But I can assure you this. Unless you stop with all of the lies, you will never have true friendship. Let people see the real you. I'm sure that there is plenty there to like. If I have to be a friendship casualty to get you to see this, then perhaps there is a reason that we became friends in the first place.

Respect yourself and those around you - that's all you need.

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Hi, my name is CK, and I've been a blogger for 200 posts.