This feeling of walking on eggshells around friends is kind of like a mid-life crisis or like some unwarranted maturity that makes you want to weigh and measure every word meticulously. 

What if that friend takes offence to it? What if it touches a raw chord, leading to potential conflict or misunderstanding?

The reference to ‘mid-life’ and ‘unwarranted maturity’ harks back to those early years of blissful indifference, when we casually peppered our conversations with cuss words and sly remarks, even in the presence of someone new to the group. There was a ‘what-the-heck’ sense that seemingly prompted us to believe, ‘come on, it’s just a friend.’ 

If you can’t tease a friend without weighing the potential repercussions, who else could you do it with – right?

But then, the eggshell reference is not just to the use of words that do not comply with the ‘decent’ tag; it could be just about anything… It could be a query regarding a test, a comment on recent events, or even a remark on politics – just about anything could act as a trigger to send you walking back on the metaphorical eggshells.

It is truly a paradox – this concept of right and wrong words – and we find ourselves navigating around this conundrum, knowing that it all boils down to context. 

Everything, just about everything in this world is about the context, the tone and the perspective. And with friends we tend to assume that we are aware of the context; that we have the liberty to twist it without breaking; that we have been bestowed with the power of friendship to tease or pull-the-leg without breaking the vibes.

Of course, there are no two ways about the bonds of true friendship. It will survive all those barbs, curses and challenges. A backslap can turn everything back to 360 degrees. Agree?

But have you tried asking for a favour – not the kind that requires you to wake up in the middle of the night and chat about some issue – without overthinking what words to use, the tone to maintain and the context in which to request? Oftentimes, it is easier to ask favours from mere acquaintances than from friends. You tend to feel that that you might be inconveniencing that friend with your request; or it could be because you do not want to expect a ‘no’ and so go humming and hawing.

For reasons mentioned above – midlife and unwarranted maturity – we tend to forget that oft-quoted proverb: ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed’. 

Let no friend make you want to tiptoe around them!

What the hell did I say now