Being at your friend’s small game matters as much as being at the big one. Maybe more.

Big occasions have crowds anyway, so your presence is one of many and nobody counts it. The quiet fixture on a wet Thursday with eleven people watching is where being there is unmistakable, because every person in that number is a decision somebody made. Your friend will be able to tell you years later who was at that one.

Look at what is happening this week that nobody would blame you for skipping: the second team game, the recital, the thing they said was no big deal. Go to one. Say nothing clever about it afterwards, just that you saw the good bit.