Friends

What is a friend? Are our true friends more important to us than even members of our family? A popular, and oft-repeated Facebook post claims: “Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs. The ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything for you, and love you no matter what.”

In the words of Alain de Botton, a friend is someone “kind enough to consider more of us normal than most people do.” And when we think about the importance of friends, one can’t help but think Nietzsche was right to find Epicurus’s ideas on friendship appealing: “Of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one’s entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship.”

This past week I have managed to catch up with two wonderful friends. The next week will, I hope, see me have the opportunity to spend time with others. I am blessed with a collection of special people – not a large collection to be sure, but a collection nonetheless – of people who I consider to be true friends.

Then there are the new friends. The people we meet by chance who touch our lives and who, for whatever reason, reach us in a way that makes us want to open ourselves to them and to meet up with them again and again. The people we want to build a friendship with because of that spark they have that lights our hearts and our minds (and if we’re very lucky, our bodiesJ).

They may, over time, become family. Or we may realise that we were mistaken. Or they may not like us quite the same way we like them.

I guess what counts for me is that amongst all the people that I have met, there are a few people I find it easy to support and love who support and love me back.