A Child Shall Lead Us

People seem to have interesting ideas of friendship. Most of these ideas are wrong.

The most often recited definition of friendship is "a person who is always there when you need them." No, that's the Red Cross, or if you believe their ads, State Farm insurance (it's a lie - don't fall for it). The people who believe that are the ones that you never hear from until five minutes before they need you to help them move something.

Remember when we were kids? Friendship meant everything to us, yet we never had to say a word about its importance.

Even during high school, with raging hormones and our own private hell of metamorphosis distracting us, friendship retained its power and strength. Friends were not conveniences then; we didn't look at our friends like they were grants from an unknown institution that we could withdraw from endlessly. Friends were EVERYTHING.

What changes, then, as we grow older? Certainly starting careers and families changes the basic structure in our lives. We lose time and energy. We become distracted.

But it seems so odd to me that as we grow into adults, most of us lose interest in being a true friend. And I don't mean HAVING true friends; I think we all want a true friend in our lives, due to their obvious benefits. I mean BEING a true friend. It takes work. It has risk. However, the benefits to others and to ourselves far outweigh the potential struggle involved.

Imagine a farmer with a fertile field and a bag of seed. It's ridiculous to think that he should stay inside with his family and not cultivate the field that stretches before him! How long will that field continue to yield an abundance? Answer: Not long. As Charles Caleb Colton once said, "True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost." Foolish is the one who grows into adulthood and loses this valuable resource!

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

- Anais Nin

How strange that we forget the value of true friendship just as life is teaching us differently.