Friends

Friends

Friends

Do you have one? Or many? How can you know if you really have a friend? To have a friend one must be a friend that others want to have as a friend. This is the basis of friendship; two people who are worthy of being friends and who want to have a relationship with one another.

Having friends on social media outlets is not really an accurate representation of true friendship. One can have many friends online, but this does not mean these connections on a social media platform are really one’s friends. One may have one hundred to one thousand plus connections, friends, likes, recommendations and / or endorsements. How accurate or heartfelt these expressions of personal or business references are remains to be seen, the true value of which is also unknown.

One can more accurately know how many friends one has by knowing with whom one regularly associates and with whom one gets together often. Albeit one may meet up with acquaintances, as well as friends.

To know that one is a friend and that one has friend one should consider what it means to be a friend. If one is need of advice, assistance or money, then one may turn to a friend for help. A real friend is their when one is need. If one cannot count on a friend when one is ‘down and out’, then one’s so-called friend is not a real friend. Likewise, is one available to help out another friend who calls upon them for advice, assistance or money? If so, then one can rightfully consider oneself a friend. There is an expression that comes to mind on this subject: “A friend in need is a friend in deed.”

Perhaps to be more true to oneself one should only be friends in reality and in the realm of cyberspace with one’s actual friends. Is this reasonable? If one does not expand one’s online circle or friends, then can one still increase one’s real friendship community? Possibly this is the heart of the matter.

Real friends seem to shine and to draw other people towards themselves. Eventually a community of friends develops and one’s friends meet and become friends to one’s friends. Finally there is a community of friends that has been built. A real community is one that is constituted by friends who care about each other. Do you live in such a community?