Friendship Evaluated

Created: September 07, 2006

Remember when we were innocent and things didn't matter?

George Washington, the first American President once said:

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

I think he was probably on to something. It's probably not surprising that my best friends and confidantes are those that I've known for at least the last 6 years. Maybe it's true that you can't find true friendship quickly, that it's a slow growth. Maybe that's why I have probably only a handful of friends that I can actually call true.

I always thought that I had good judgement. I still do. Maybe I need to stop listening to my head and more to my heart. Maybe I should make decisions based on what I believe rather than on what others would want me to believe.

I have always had very liberal ideas and ideals. I detest the self righteous 'right'. I have always believed in free will and live and let live. Why judge others when we are all imperfect? Why judge by race, class, nationality, gender, sexual orientation or even by the simplist of nuances like clothes, cars or significant others?

Maybe I am too simplistic and out of touch with reality. Maybe it's up to our generation to make the difference. Maybe we should stop trying to live for tomorrow or next week or next year. Don't get me wrong. We should always work for a better future, but isn't there something to be said about this moment? The one that we live in right now. This very moment when you're reading my journal and ask why, why not live as if each day was your last?

You're not guaranteed tomorrow, only right now. Why seek divisiveness, hypocricy, deception and frivolity? Seek upliftment and don't discriminate. We are all one. If you're religious, most teach that we have come from One and will so return. We are all brothers and sisters in this brief excursion on Earth.

Let us take care of each other.