In perpetuum

How many people can truly say that they have friends? Do we know what it means to be a friend or who  falls into the category of being a friend.  The Concise Oxford Dictionary states that the word friend means: One joined to another in intimacy and mutual benevolence independently of sexual or family love.  But I have a problem with the term "independent of .......love".  To be a true friend there must be love.  You must love the person you are deeming to be your friend.  How else would you cope with their faults, their absences, their choices?  Because they are individuals, seperate from ourselves, yes, you may have alot in common but there will always be differences.  And as one inspired man of the Bible wrote, "love covers a multitude of sins".  To be a true friend you must be willing to forgive and always forget.  Some claim to know what friendship is but they have not a clue. They believe that being a friend constitutes giving. You giving, they receiving. The minute there is nothing to give you don't see them. The minute you make a mistake they are the first to condemn you. And yet, they'll smile with you, tell you everything is fine when they know its not.  A real friend is there for you no matter what. If they haven't seen you in three years they'll remember you like they saw you yesterday.  Time may have passed and some things may have changed but that love you have for each other would never.  Never would they feel that they don't know you. They would love you.  People who are quick to forget you, or dismiss you were never your friends. People who you only see when its pay day are not your friends. People who only call because you can pull a few strings are not your friends.  Friends don't take, they give. And when you give and your friend gives, there is only giving with love and honest.Don't look at it as the other is taking because you're both giving. Giving and wanting nothing in return. You are friends.