Thoughts on Friendship

Those who have many friends and mix intimately with them all are thought to be no one's friend

The term can be simplified to, "A friend to all is a friend to none" though Aristotle never wrote such terse wording in Greek, he did seem to be in agreement with the sentiment.

So what is friendship?

This is a topic that I have been contemplating a lot lately.

What does it mean to have friends? What do they mean you you? What do you mean to them? Is there an imbalance in the weighting?

It's true that even a virtual gesture is a friendly gesture, and it has the potential to warm the heart just the same! Yet I think that much of what we share and how we interact digitally does not have the same impact as when we do the same thing physically.

In fact, the different friendships which I have forged during my life have had a significant impact on the person that I am today.

During the course of our lives we make many friendships.

Fortunately, the best friends stay. That's the case with Jennifer. We've known each other since our college years but our friendship has become especially close this year. Had I met her on one of the many social platforms the chance that we would a) had this much time to get to know each other b) felt close enough to remain in contact c) and even remained in contact is slim.

One Wednesday afternoon in late April, Jennifer invited me to her home to spend some time together. She lives in a two story home in a nice neighborhood, where she and her husband built a beautiful patio in the back where they entertain when the weather permits. It is expertly landscaped even though Jennifer's husband works at the bank and had little experience before they started the project.

That afternoon we stat on the patio and drank lattes and discussed everything and anything. After a while I noticed that the table we sat at was beautifully polished. I noticed it because of the unusual varnish with small black patterns. After a few minutes of discussing everything and nothing, I couldn't help but compliment her on varnished table and ask her how she made the pretty patterns on the wood.

This remark seemed to have pleased her. So she explained with a smile how she had done it and thanked me for my compliment.

We see one another regularly and many of our visits go much the same as that one. Had I simply clicked like on a picture of the table neither of us would have been rewarded for it. But through those small interactions that seem so simple we nurture a friendship that has only grown stronger over the years.

Friendship can't be counted on a website. But it can give you a hug in person. It can be there to share your joy, your hardships, and the moments that make up our lives.

But you won't have a thousand of them. You don't need a thousand of them.

The good ones are the ones that last.