Dear Norm...

We have been friends for 4 years.
Over that time I have seen you date the entire workforce of a certain company, advised you on whether it is a good idea to flirt with a teenage nursing student, and defended your honour to a exorbitent amount of annoyed women.
So ya know, we have history.
I like you, I respect you, I feel your pain honey.
Thats why I am doing this, with little or no anger in my heart (well maybe an aorta or two.)

You know I try to live by Buddhist principles. I know that confuses the hell out of you. But this time, they saved your butt.
The one that has always confused me is "all the suffering in the world comes from cherishing yourself, all the happiness in the world comes from cherishing others".
This is fab if we are talking the girl at the supermarket checkout, or the little old lady crossing the road, but in relationships? Does that not mean doormat time? "patiently"accepting your bad behaviour with an angelic little sigh?
So this is what i have been thinking.

I love my kid. I love my cat.
If my kid decided he really wanted to stick a firecracker up my cats behind, would I let him? Because I cherish him?
Likewise, would I let you run around town with only your underpants on?
So if we follow that little convoluted pathway, why on earth should I allow you to continue to treat me in the way you are.
It is not good for me, Its not good for you. Its not good for your reputation, our friends, or the future of mankind.
So it's going to stop.
I am cherishing you by removing myself from your world.
Because a doormat has no power to help anyone, all a doormat can do is get more and more angry until one day she wears herself out with all that stomping on.

About the underpants... maybe one little lap around the waterfront on a Saturday night...