what a long strange trip it's been

Yesterday was a merging of friends past and friends present. Who can say who will be friends future?
I went to the wedding of my ex's best friend yesterday evening. My ex had come to town and was there as his best man. The mutual friend who had introduced me to my ex so many years ago was also there.
Playing music at the reception site was a new friend from one of the social groups I have been part of since the divorce. There was also another new friend from another social group I have been part of since the divorce. Both of these folks know the groom and one of them also knows my ex. Small world.
As you know, I've had to start over with my social life, AD. The friends I had before the marriage, who never left my side, are still with me, though they are scattered geographically around this continent. Almost all of the friends I thought I had during the marriage have scattered away, though they still live in this very town. You would have thought divorce was contagious. And perhaps, in a way, it is. People in marriages, relationships, couplehood, find themselves shining a harsh spotlight on their spouses, partners, significant others, searching for any hint of a fatal flaw that might unravel the threads binding them together.
A bit of questioning is a good thing. Any truth, belief, credo, which cannot withstand close scrutiny is not worthy of being a truth or belief or credo. So much of what we hold to be true is based on partial knowledge and subjective perception and not on verifiable and objective facts. My favorite definition of truth is "conformity with fact or reality". It's close to being a scientific law, which is hailed as being a rule held to be true in every instance... but is it? Those laws are based on the outcomes of repeated experiments, but usually have some caveat added in. For instance, all the laws concerning the behavior of properties of gases include the phrase "for an ideal gas" - of which there is nonesuch. Still, the gas laws do give scientists a starting point for understanding and predicting how a real gas will respond to various stimuli.
Perhaps that is how personal truths are of best use. If those beliefs are held to be guidelines, not nonmalleable facts, then those beliefs help make some sense of this world and the people we meet. Guidelines. "Indications of a future course of action", by others known and unknown and by oneself. THAT is helpful.