Friends Forever

Can you imagine of a day without having any of your friends with you. It is very difficult. Every day interact with out friends. You might have heard the dictum : “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” We look towards our friends for comfort in times of distress in our life. A true friend stands by us in all times, in good times and bad times alike. One who leaves in time of peril is not a true friend.

A friendship is a cooperative and supportive relationship between two or more people. What does it take to a good friend ? There are different types of friendship that we will encounter in our lives. There are three known types of friendship : friendship for pleasure, friendship of utility, and friendship of virtue. Friendship can exist between : man – man, woman – woman, or man – woman. Some people even establish friendship with their pet animals. Friendship transcends age is possible between even old and young. Love is the binding force in true friendship.

A friend is a person who is able to love irrespective of whether he is being loved or not. Friends share mutual interests. They want what is best for the other. They show sympathy and honesty. They support and listen to each other. When we share a friendship with someone we are sharing ourselves.

It is said that true friends are like mirrors. Whenever we look at them we see ourselves. A true friend will be able to point out our abilities as well as our weaknesses to us just as in a mirror. Friendship is undboubtedly central to our lives. Our friends can help shape, who we are, as persons.

We can find three characteristics of friendship. They are : mutual caring (or love), intimacy, and shared activity. A necessary condition for friendship is that the friend cares about the other. Mutual caring implies sympathy and being moved by what happens to our friends to feel the appropriate emotions : joy in the friends’ success and disappointment in friends’ failure etc.

The intimacy in friendship is to be understood in terms of mutual self – disclosure. Such mutual self – disclosure creates the “bond of trust” essential to friendship. Shared activity is important because friends normally have shared interests as part of the intimacy and they engage in joint pursuits.

Friendship has individual and social values. Friendship is “life enhancing” it makes us “feel more alive”. It improves our activities by helping us to get fully involved in them. It helps promote self – esteem too. Friendship, and the resultant shared activities, it essentially involves, are needed to reinforce our intellectual and practical life.