Thursday, October 02, 2008

choices in friends

we make certain choices in friends. choices in who we want to be associated with, choices in who we want to be with, choices in who we like.

the tendency is to make these choices with the same attitude we would like to approach everything else in our lives: in complete freedom, without limits, without constraints. consistent with our visions of clear horizons and infinite opportunities, with new paths lying everywhere waiting for us to explore, with every path a promise of something better than everything we've known before.

but we have to be careful in choosing which way we go; the consequences of our choices can be high.

choose the right kind of friend--a good friend, a real friend--and you'll have an ally who'll be a constant support and source of truth given in the deepest sincerity of your best interest, a companion who'll serve to ease your burdens and heal your hurts and calm your nerves, a partner who'll help you reach your goals and fulfill your hopes and realize your dreams and, if necessary, carry you to them on their own. choose the right kind of friend, and you'll have someone who makes you a better person...the person you were meant to be.

choose the wrong kind of friend--a bad friend, one not even deserving of the word--and you'll have an insidious parasite who'll only seduce you with lies and half-truths to serve their own self-interest, a poison who'll add to your suffering and magnify your pain and spread chaos in your life, a malevolence who'll pull you away from your goals and evaporate your hopes and divert your dreams and, when you least expect it, replace them all with nightmares. choose the wrong kind of friend, and you'll have someone who'll dominate you and make you nothing more than their personal slave.

our choices make a difference, particularly in the great race that is our life.

the right kind of friend will pull you through rough conditions and bad weather, they'll lift your spirit when things get tough, and when you need them most, they'll stay with you to whatever ends and see to it that you are all right, no matter the sacrifice they must make, even if it means giving you their very last drop of water, their very last morsel of food, their very last tube, or their very last bit of energy. so that you may rise again.

the wrong kind of friend will do none of the above. they'll stick around long enough to get what they want, and when things get rough and you no longer meet their desires, they'll betray you, and leave you, and in the process make sure to hurt you. for no other reason than it gives them pleasure. and they'll drink your water, and eat your food, and steal your tube, and destroy your energy. so that you may be crushed into oblivion.

our choices must be careful. especially when it comes to friends. especially in what it means to our race. especially in what it means in how we finish.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This hits it right on. I've experienced both of the above but unfortunately more of the latter. It's a rocky healing process in terms of rebuilding your trust in others, but I'm hoping for brighter days!