A Friend is a Friend, is a Friend, is a Friend
What is a friend?
“I’ll tell you. It is a person with
whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can go naked with him. He seems to ask
you to put on nothing. Only to be what you really are. He does not want you to
be better or worse. When you are with him, you feel as a prisoner feels who has
been declared innocent. You do not have to be on guard. You can say what you
think, so long as it is genuinely you. He understands those contradictions in
your nature that cause others to misjudge you. With him you breathe free – you
can avow your little vanities and envies and hates and vicious sparks, your
meanness and absurdities, and in opening them up to him they are lost,
dissolved on the white ocean of his loyalty.”
“He understands. You do not have to
be careful. You can abuse him, neglect him or tolerate him. Best of all, you
can keep still with him. It makes no difference. He loves you. He is like fire
that purges all you do. He is like water that cleanses all that you say. He is
like wine that warms you to the bone. He understands. You can weep with him,
laugh with him and pray with him.”
“Through and underneath it all he
sees, knows and loves you.
A friend, I repeat, is one with whom you dare to be
yourself.”
This definition of a
friend comes from an unknown author. I found it in the 1975 Farmers’ Almanac.
I will add a question
and an answer to it. Do you have just
such a friend? I do, and it is my husband of fifty-nine years.
By Lois Jamieson
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