© The School of Truth
Source p. 377, Nov / Dec 2010 - The Path of Truth

Hello everyone -

Don't you think it is most important that we should choose our intimate friends with discretion, and not 'strike leagues of friendship with cheap persons where no friendship can be' as Emerson has it?

Genuine friends are rare. We may have many acquaintances, but that does not mean that we have many friends. And those we have, we should cherish.

"The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel," says Shakespeare, and how right he was!

A friend is someone to whom we should be able to tell our inmost thoughts, without reserve, because he or she understands us. A friend knows our faults and loves us in spite of them, not because of them. A friend is someone who shares our joys, who is as happy as we are when we are successful, and who also shares our sorrows and will do everything to raise our spirits.

Let us be sure that we do not behave possessively with our friends. We do not own them, nor they us. They may have other friends whom we do not know... let us not interfere. Let us take what they have to give with great gratitude, but we should not be demanding, we should not intrude on them.

To quote Emerson again: "I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with the roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads of frostwork, but the solidest thing we know."

We can always tell our true friends from others when adversity strikes us. Our genuine friends stay with us, but those who were friendly only for the sake of what they could get from us, will fade out of our lives.

Do be careful, then, of the friends you make. Be kind to everyone; help anyone who needs your aid; but guard against friendship that can do you no good.

Yours,
June