Friendship in our materialistic age....!!!

Monday, September 6, 2010

True, loyal and faithful friends are indeed our prized possession supposed to be treasured forever. Their friendship is timeless and eternal. “For without friends,” Aristotle says, “no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” Good friends are two bodies with one soul.

Regrettably and ironically, genuine friendship is hard to be found in our materialistic world where money and personal gains are considered as yardsticks or criteria for having friends. All the folk tales, stories, great sermons extolling the virtues and setting great standard of friendship seem to have lost their core meaning in our present age. The ideal friendshiphas been confined to books only. Its significance is reduced to nothingness in our jet-set age, where moral values are blurred and eclipsed by greed, avarice, self-aggrandizement, faithlessness and some other social evils and vices.


Friendship is a noble quality. We hate to lose or deprive ourselves of this great and wonderful possession of ours. We are all supposed to make sincere effort to keep friendship alive for our own sake. Remember, Friends have no substitute, no match, no even money, nothing whatsoever. Following are some useful suggestions to keep friendship still valuable and worthwhile:
 To have a friend, be a friend. 
Never test your friend. He/she might not be in a position, though they wish to, to come up with your expectations because of their own problems and compulsions. 
Be sincere with your friends. Your sincerity will win their hearts, and they will reciprocate your love, sincerity and devotion. 
All friendships have their ups and downs. Learning to put aside disagreements makes companionship long-lasting. 
There should be frankness among friends for self-revelation. One must take friend’s criticism as seriously as their expressions of admiration or praise. 
Friends must show their unity, faithfulness and loyalty. 
Friendship contains some trial, but true friendship endures the test and ever grows from it. 
Friends give more than they expect to receive.

 True friendship is timeless. Circumstances may, sometimes, fade or eclipse it, but it cannot be completely effaced.