Never in my advanced years on this good Earth have I experienced the loss of friendships in the manner I have done in recent times.

Yes, during the Age of Donald John Trump.

This novice politician has cost me friendships I thought for many years would be unbreakable. They might bend to the point of breaking. They would snap back like a sapling.

No longer.

Three quick examples come to mind of the relationships that been torn apart.

One involves a fellow I knew when I worked in Amarillo. He hails from Pampa. We met for lunch on occasion. We didn’t talk politics when we shared a meal, but we sure did when we sat behind our keyboards. We got into a snit one time and my pal cut me off. He was gone.

Another was a former colleague of mine at the Amarillo Globe-News. I left the paper in August 2012, he stayed on. We argued over this and that Trump policy. We became ex-friends. We stayed that way until he suffered a stroke and died a few years ago.

Yet another was a friend with whom I worked in Beaumont. We maintained our friendship even though he hailed from Arkansas and detested Bill and Hillary Clinton; I felt differently about them than he did, but our friendship survived. Along came Trump and my friend severed our relationship. It remained that way for the rest of his life.

I have struggled to understand why now do political differences get in the way of friendships. I have concluded this must be the nature of the politician who is the common denominator. Trump destroys friendships by turning on men and women on whom he depends. When they cross him, he cuts them off, sends them adrift.

Therefore, it seems to me, the same “logic” follows among those who adhere to the Trumpian blathering and those who oppose it … and him.

I am uncomfortable functioning in this environment. It’s not that I count many acquaintances as “friends.” I have few actual friends in this world. The rest of them are acquaintances, many of them do evolve into actual relationships.

I am happy to report that the few lifelong friendships I have forged over many decades are surviving this tempestuous time. However, we aren’t yet past this tumult.