It's Gonna Be Okay
The message of today is to meditate on the special unique power of friendship, real, lasting, pure, and unconditional. The type of friend that will love you with honesty and authenticity, enjoying the times of mirth and good fortunate, weeping over the hard times, and will bluntly tell you when you've gone off the rails into the danger zone. The characters' and their arcs throughout the run of Night Court OG reflected that. From the dawn of the first episode through the final episode, they grew through the years as they got to know each other and experienced the peaks and the pitfalls of life. They were honest enough to help steer someone back on course if they had gone astray or were acting in anyway out of normalcy or with disregard. In the times when one fell into despair, they were also there to help rebuild and bring them back. This often expressed itself in many a form based not just on the storyline but also the character themselves.
As I scan through Night Court's IMDB page, I am awash with many examples showing how the characters' demonstrated true friendship and were there for one another when needed. However, in the instance of time (and yes I can go all day chatting on NC because it's the best ever), I will only showcase a couple. First, in season two, episode nineteen, "Married Alive", (a personal favorite), Dan meets, falls in love with, and gets engaged to an 'ugly duckling' rich heiriss. While his friends' doubt his authenticity when it comes to the upcoming nuptials thinking its merely for financial gain, Dan actually has fallen for this woman because he finds in her someone who he can let down his guard and be real with, proving that there is more nuance to Dan than he allows to be seen. (That's why I love him so much!)
Dan Fielding: [snaps his fingers] Poof! I mean just like your magic, Harry. She makes my problems disappear, my anxieties subside. I mean God's in his heaven, all is right with the world, there's nowhere to go but up, look for the silver lining, don't give up the ship! And I'll be damned if that's not what each and every one of us is looking for, and I just happened to find mine, so the best of luck to the rest of you. You know that crazy stuff that we all carry around inside of us? That stuff that eats little holes in your brain and churns at your insides? That stuff that you know you cannot possibly tell another living human being? I can tell her. And she listens, and she understands. She says "It's all right. [long pause]It's all right." And it IS.
In the end, it is his fiance' who backs out of the marriage due to her terror when her father threatens to cut her off, leaving Dan heartbroken. Outwardly, Dan puts on a brave face, but finding himself alone with the pain, he turns to the one friend present, Harry, calling out to him with, "Harry!" who comforts him in return with "It'll be all right, Dan", leaving together with their arms around each others' shoulders.
The favor is returned to Harry by Dan in season three, episodes nine and ten, "Wheels Of Justice", Harry becomes downtrodden when he sees himself as a failure to a destitute mother and her son and decides to walk away from his bench. Defiantly, he decides to live his life as a hustler playing pool in a bar and it's only Dan brave enough to stand up against him and with full authenticity he shames and loves his friend back to where he belongs.
The point of all of this is to show how more often than not it's our friends that we need more than anyone else in times of despair. Our friends to come around us and build us up with that simple "It'll be all right".
About a week ago, I lost a good friend from high school from Covid19. Growing up, I went to a very small and rural school district wherein most of my class knew each other from preschool onwards through high school. So, the loss of my friend is akin to losing a beloved family member because my classmates and I are a family, even if time and distance has come between. That weekend I found myself in a place of feeling stymied, unable to really focus, feeling numb and in shock with the absence of her presence in my life. Sunday morning I went out to my garden to do some winter cleaning and picking of the last fruits of my labor. The sky was blue and the sun was bright, not too cold yet not too warm. I stood up from my chores and felt the warmth of the sunlight beaming down upon me and was overcome with this feeling of warmth. I felt my friend's spirit hug me from within and felt her expressing comfort as she would with:
"It's gonna be okay, I love you, and thank you."
I will not say that I am completely over my grief, but that moment of comfort where I felt her with me has strengthened my resolve and ability to move forward. A friend may not pass onward to whatever comes next to be that source of comfort and reprieve, in fact, my sole desire in life is to be present for those dear to me before fading away and to never fail to express verbally and nonverbally how much I love, for its in that that is truly known that:
"Every little thing is gonna be all right."
Rise up this mornin',
Smiled with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', "This is my message to you-ou-ou:"
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing, worry about a thing, oh!
Every little thing gonna be all right. Don't worry!"
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing" - I won't worry!
"'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."
