Going out with a bang puts spotlight on the value of friendship …

SPOILER ALERT: Some details of the final episode of “The Big Bang Theory” are stated in this blog post. Do NOT read this if you don’t want content of the show to be spoiled for you.

After 12 years of entertaining television audiences on Thursday nights, last night was the final episode of “The Big Bang Theory.”

And the show went out with a bang … a good one.

Central to the show was the character of Sheldon Cooper, a brilliant yet quirky, nerdy physicist and his circle of friends; and central to the theme of the show was Sheldon’s pervasive selfishness with his friends … and everyone!

To Sheldon Cooper, life revolved around him, and everyone in it were supporting characters on his quest to become a Nobel Prize winner.

Many of us know (or have known) a version of a Sheldon Cooper — someone radically selfish who took little to no interest in others, even their closest friends. Most of us throw in the towel on that kind of person. Part of the success of the sitcom was about the characters hitting heights of frustration with Sheldon’s selfishness, but finding ways to persist in their friendship with him.

Which is why the ending script of the show was so touching.

In the final episode, Sheldon actually does win his Nobel Prize, and in his speech when receiving the award, Cooper reaches a personal place no one thought he ever would — a deep realization of the value of faithful friends. Instead of a prepared 90-minute speech of self-praise, Sheldon turns the spotlight on his friends and publicly thanks them for all they had done to help him get to where he was.

It isn’t just that we have all known grossly selfish people and have had the challenge of how to be a friend to them, but we’ve had our own moments (short or very long) where we’ve been the selfish one and haven’t properly valued true friendship. It was refreshing to see a sitcom turn the spotlight on something of such great value — lasting, enduring, genuine friendship.

In the end of the show, none of Sheldon’s friends had walked out on him (although tempted to!); instead, they sat up front to applaud him and share in his greatest professional accomplishment. And Sheldon realized for once he needed to step out of the spotlight and place it on the friendships that had seen him through life — that coming when he finally earned a real spotlight, one he had been chasing all his life. He gave it to his friends instead.

For a TV sitcom, it was a beautiful message.

Enduring friendship is beautiful. Not always easy, but beautiful to experience. We learn to put up with each other, cheer each other on, and be there for each other even (especially?) when the other doesn’t deserve it. But the love of a real friend is persistent.

Maybe you have a “Sheldon” in your life — keep on loving them, as difficult as that can be, because they need you!

Maybe you’re the “Sheldon” in someone’s life — stubbornly selfish with little regard for others, even those you’re closest to. How can you be a better friend and appropriately value the great gift of friendship?

Scotty