On shitty friendships

"Lately I've been imagining a life of showing up for others, celebrating them, when they reach certain milestones. And then those people never showing up to celebrate mine."

“I don’t want to be a shitty friend to you,” he said. I paused.

A few weeks earlier, I had invited the people I loved most to celebrate a milestone in my relationship with my partner, a move towards formalizing our commitment. I’m not sure what I expected. A significant proportion of those invited were what many would identify as “conservative” Catholics…