Isn't it wonderful that the Great Creator, from he very beginning of the world in the creation of the human species in Adam and Eve, included the desire for friendship in the human DNA?
Isn't it wonderful that the Great Creator, from he very beginning of the world in the creation of the human species in Adam and Eve, included the desire for friendship in the human DNA? From the beginning of time up to the present, the quality of life includes the wonderful relations that are the result of having good friends.
First: Let's decide what the parameters of friendship include. It seems logical to assume that it takes at least two people to have a friendship, although a friendship can flourish with more than two individuals.
So what is the agent that exists when a friendship can exist between two or more people?
In my own experience, all of my friendships from early on in childhood to the present at age 80 required a genuine respect for the person I was befriending, a respect and a genuine appreciation for the elements present in the person I was befriending. As I developed more and more, we had similar interests.
Another ingredient in this budding relationship was the question, what will this person bring to the friendship that will be of mutual benefit to both of us? When can such a happening take place? If two or more individuals find themselves living or working in close proximity to each other. Friendships often develop in childhood when the individuals live as neighbors or in close housing developments.
If they find occasions to play with each other, they soon find that they enjoy each other as friends. In this close existence, people find that their neighbors will get together in neighborly activities such as picnics and card parties. Often neighbors will find carpools to social events or driving to work if they work at the same place. Often when children play together, their parents become friends as a result, and they soon find similar interests.
Adults who work together often become friends because through their work and close proximity to each other, they learn to know each other. Belonging to the same social sets for sports and recreation are natural excuses to become friends. When working and worshiping in the same church, where spiritual bonds are formed, working together strengthens friendships. Any activity where adults find themselves working together increases trust, and like-mindedness are the bonds that foster friendship. Friendships are often formed as a result of similar needs such as of a job or other personal tragedies.
In the final analysis, where two or more people find they depend on each other for sharing, there exists the potential for the development of lasting friendships.
When our society finally experiences the individual worth of its members, it seems only natural friendship or companionship is not only possible but expected. That element of respect and appreciation of individual worth may fill vacancies in society that are not explained from any source.
Finally, when we as individuals are placed in situations of individual choice, the need to have a friend or companion makes a strong case for each of us in almost all of life's situations. That natural inclination to have a friend cannot be taken lightly. Often when friendships are forcibly dissolved, there develops a real personal loss.
The search for friendship can only be satisfied when our need for the strength we find in each others’ persona is allowed to compliment the lack of that strength we find in the persona of a close friend.