Friends forever! A simple yet very powerful statement! Most people are often expressing their
friendships in the most profound of manners. There are the extremes who go to
the length of proclaiming their readiness to die for the sake of friendship!
It’s really healthy and a good thing to have friends. Especially those who are
always ready to stand by you, come rain, come sun. One major concern of
friendship that seems to escape most people is the fact that there are always
limits to whatever we do. Even friendships need to have discernible ‘borders’. Whatever one may hope or
wish for in life, Family (Biological, Adopted…) is always paramount because it’s
the nucleus of all other human interpersonal relationships. We (all) have
friends, genuine or otherwise. We have the choice of having or not having
friends, who to have as friends, how close the friendship, but can we really
live comfortably without family and/or friends? Whether we like them or not?
Forging friendships should be a careful undertaking bearing in mind that it’s
tantamount to taking a dive into the deep water s of the oceans. You never know
the kind of dangers lurking beneath those murky waters. There are electric eels and hungry bull
sharks ready to make a feast of you! If you are not alert, friends may
only be there to take advantage of you! As much as we need friends, we should
always have or put into place measures that define the ‘boundaries of amity’. Not all friends should be privy to
your most intimate moments/liaisons. In fact one cannot and should not have a
multitude of friends as confidantes! Remember your secrets can only be well
kept by you and only you! Once shared a secret is only but ‘an open secret’,
open to anyone else lucky enough to be ‘within the hearing range’ so to speak!
Of course those within the hearing range are your friends and friends of your
friends, ‘the network of amity’!
(And of course the “coincidental
bystanders “!)
It’s said
that ‘birds of a feather, flock together’ but don’t you elect to ‘flock’ just
so as you may ‘belong’! Choose your friends wisely. Sift them, grade them, put
them in suspension or delete them altogether from your silo of friends. Better
to have one strong and dedicated friend than have a ‘crowd’ of friends who will
easily run away and evaporate the moment trouble rears its head amidst their
pomposity of friendship that is only guided in the assurance of their
'comfortability'!
