The Real Meaning of Friendship

Even if your life is perfect and everything is running like clock work, one day you still may get into trouble or there will be a problem that you will not be able to solve yourself. What you do is call a friend, a person whom you can always rely on. He will never betray you and your secrets, never lie, never deceive. Once you have no way out and problems seem to surround you like enemies, your mind goes blank and the only desire you have is to hide your head in the sand and pretend that you don’t hear or see what is going on. And than he comes, the rescuer, a fresh mind and a strong hand to pull you out to the surface and help you to face your problems. But does your friend correspond to that description?

You are surrounded by a lot of people daily, who claim to be your friends. You spend much time with them thinking of them as friends. But when it comes to help or advice they all seem to disappear, to evaporate suddenly after leaving you with a thousand made up excuses. You feel deceived and have no idea of what to do. Then a thought dawns on you that in your phone book there is still a number of an old friend of yours that you haven’t seen for years now. You know that if you call him and ask for help, he’ll wake up in the middle of the night, lean you all his money, give shelter even he has a family of six to keep. He helped you out in high school studies, provided term paper help, covered your back when you had some of your crazy affairs and never complained when he had been getting in trouble for his help. Being good in writing custom term papers he always seemed to fail his work to try his best to do your work. But there is also strange thing you remember; you didn’t really appreciate all his efforts to help you. They were so numerous that you started to take them for granted and didn’t even pay attention to what had been done for you. It was so weird to see that somebody was ready to help you out of willingness to make your life better, that it was hard to believe that it was so.

Suggestions of Friendship

"Life has no blessing like a prudent friend" - Euripides (BC)

"The only way to have a friend is to be one. . . A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Getting people to like you is the starting point, and it should be fairly easy to do. People have a basic need to be liked themselves, and by showing your appreciation of them, they will return your feelings. Praise given out sincerely is a great act of friendship. Be kind, pleasant, calm, and a good listener. Try to see the good, not the bad qualities in people. Smile.

"The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words." - Buddha (BC)

As a friend, try to let an unfavorable incident or remark fly right over the top of your head. We all blurt out something stupid or do something regrettable at times, and it's so nice when the other acts as if it never happened. This is a dear friend.

"I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend" - Abe Lincoln (1809-1865)

Definataion of Friendship

Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more people. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each others company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism. Their tastes will usually be similar and may converge, and they will share enjoyable activities. They will also engage in mutually helping behavior, such as exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship. A friend is someone who may often demonstrate reciprocating and reflective behaviors. Yet for many, friendship is nothing more than the trust that someone or something will not harm them.

Value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating the following on a consistent basis:

* the tendency to desire what is best for the other,
* sympathy and empathy,
* honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one's counterpart,
* mutual understanding.

In a comparison of personal relationships, friendship is considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and associations. Friendship and association can be thought of as spanning across the same continuum. The study of friendship is included in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and zoology. Various theories of friendship have been proposed, among which are social psychology, social exchange theory, equity theory, relational dialectics, and attachment styles.