f-R-i-e-N-d-S-H-i-P

Entry 19

19 Sep 2012
2245
                                                           
                        FRIENDSHIP

“Friendships are fragile things, and require as much handling as any other fragile and precious thing.”  -Mencius

A common belief is that the closer you are to someone, the more honest you can be. With a 
true friend, it is said, you can “be yourself”. The longer I live, however, I find the opposite to be more and more true: the less I know someone, the more honest I can be the closer someone is the more careful I  need to be about what I say.

But get people close to you, and fear takes over, people start reading their own perception of reality into your words, and things gets complicated. Lives become intertwined, and if they don’t, that is a problem too. In some cases, relationships are hidden from others. In these contexts, less is revealed out of a general fear of being discovered.

Friends, if they are close enough, and you have influenced them in a positive way, see you in a certain light. Challenge that perception with the reality of your own failings, and your admissions will be met with judgment, disappointment and anger.

Once you are really close to someone, you discover how fragile friendship really is Friendship is a delicate organism, and the deeper the friendship, the more delicate it is. It must be handled with special care. If you really want to tell the truth, save it for a stranger in an airport.