Naturally, on the very same day that I shared that “in the immediate circle of my life, things are good”, the Universe decided to remind me who is in charge.

Just a few hours after yesterday’s post, I discovered that a coworker had died (yet nobody seems to know why) and that somebody very dear to me has apparently transitioned from “comically forgetful pothead” to “prepping for a role in Trainspotting”. Terrifying.

As if all that wasn’t enough, I had the joy of trying to process the above during a special event at work which went on far past when I like to be asleep and was full of ungrateful and increasingly drunk people. It was a rough evening followed by an even worse night of restless sleep as my brain tried to outdo itself with each successive nightmare.

And, thanks to frayed nerves and exhaustion, today didn’t go well either and is ending on a real sour note. (But hey, blogging.)

This thing with my dearest pothead – let’s call him “Trey” cause, you know, Phish – has really got me upset. A friend of Trey’s had contacted me out of the blue to drop the bombshell that our lovable stoner scamp has graduated to stronger and stronger drugs and to see if there was anything I could do about it.

But what TO do? I don’t live near Trey. If we talked about it, what do I say? I don’t even know if he’d listen, much less admit it (much, much less want to fix it). Should I get his parents involved? Will this save him or will it only make things worse? And what will it do to the parents? What actions make me the good friend and what actions make the bad friend? What if I can’t tell the difference?

I’ve spent the last year really working on accepting the things that I can’t change and then having the discipline to fix the things I can. I want to fix this – his life may depend upon it – but what if this is something I CAN’T change but don’t know it yet?

And even if I’m capable saving him, what do I do?

Where do I even start?