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Along Life’s Way
Friendship
By Lois E. Wilson
My best friend and I went to the movies every Saturday afternoon. We
laughed, cried, and wrote postcards to the stars requesting autographed
photographs. Some sent us one.
We slept over at each other’s house, shared our most innermost
thoughts, and giggled about nothing long into the night until her
mother or mine admonished, “This is the last time I’m going to tell
you!”
We liked the same music, the same food, and usually the same people.
Sometimes, we even dressed alike. She stood up for me, and I stood up
for her. We pledged we would always be together. But in its
unpredictable course, life often separates friends forever.
Friendship is a two-sided, fulfilling feeling that when you are
together—you complete each other. It is deeper than mere companionship.
You respect your differences and promote the good and happiness in both
of you.
Your closest friend could be a sibling. Wilbur Wright described his
this way: “From the time we were little children, my brother Orville
and myself lived together, played together, worked together and, in
fact, thought together…Nearly everything that was done in our lives has
been the result of conversations, suggestions, and discussions between
us.”
It may be a smile, a sincere look in one’s eyes—something makes you
enjoy being together. It has been called the “like factor.” In politics
if you are liked, you are forgiven for almost anything. But if you are
not liked, your successes may be ignored or harshly discounted. They
don’t matter. A politician’s goal is to amass “like votes” which can
swing the results of elections.
Elbert Hubbard wrote, “Your friend is the man who knows all about you,
and still likes you.” Aristotle observed, “Friendship is a single soul
dwelling in two bodies.” Cicero claimed, “Friendship makes prosperity
more brilliant, and lightens adversity by dividing and sharing it.”
Sophocles states, “To throw away an honest friend is, as it were, to
throw your life away.” In other words, friends are to be cherished.
Aretino put it this way, “I keep my friends as misers do their
treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is
greater or better than friendship.”
May we throughout our lives develop sincere friendships. May we nurture
the positive attributes we admire in each other. May they reject and
help us cast out the negative qualities they find in us. Emerson
said it best: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
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