Doo, whose birth name is David, once told me his philosophy on friendship.
"Friends," he tells me on the last day of finals at the Lair, after all the tests are done and the stress is passed, "are like circles. You know, like concentric circles. Do you know what I mean?"
He looks at me hesitantly, unsure if I could follow, and rightfully so. I have often told anyone willing to listen (all two of you) that I think Doo is ahead of his time. I think he's a dude growing up about ten years before he should have been born. People don't always get him, but I think it's because he doesn't really care the same way we do about our problems. He cares differently somehow, though not necessarily less than we do, just differently.
I guess when I write it out, it doesn't sound as sensible, but I just want people to understand that Doo is misunderstood for a reason. It's because he's great, in an Emersonian sense.
"To be great is to be misunderstood," Emerson says. Doo is misunderstood, and people gloss over his rants and seemingly trivial thoughts without truly getting him. Some dismiss him as unique, too dorky or just plain weird. Not everyone disregards him, of course, just the naive ones, the ones who don't fully get him. Some people aren't comfortable with what they don't understand, which is...understandable.
But Doo is great.
"They're like concentric circles," he continues, gaining confidence as I nod to show I follow. "The largest circle is all the people you know or all our acquaintances or whatever." He looks at me to make sure I was still following. Doo's timidity is part of why I love him. He's humble and modest, even when I tell him he's a man before his time.
I guess to some people, that's synonymous with insanity, talking and not being understood...which, looking back, makes me think I should have phrased it differently. Now I just look like I'm calling him crazy, multiple times to his face.
Regardless...
"Then there's a circle within that circle," he says, gesticulating emphatically, moving his hands closer together. "These are the people who are closer to you, the ones you grew up with or what have you."
A simple process so far.
"Then you have these friends," Doo says, moving his hands even closer, "who you would give or do anything for. I only have a handful of these friends, maybe five or six, but they're the ones that are very close to you and you would probably risk your life for them."
"Got it," I reply.
"So after your close friends, for whom you'd risk your life, there's an even smaller circle," he says, no longer using his hands, but looking at me very seriously.
"Then you have one or two friends who you know would do the same for you."
And that, avid readers, is just one reason why I love Doo Lim.
