Thank god for friends!

Imagine a life where you can associate only with your family. Shudders! How awful it would be! Thank god, we can meet other people who think like us, like us, and don’t judge us. Thank god for our friends!

We start making friends when we are no more than babies. Even then, we know who we like and who we don’t. In childhood, our friends are those similar to us, with whom we can be open and have fun. As we grow older and begin to understand the undercurrents in life, we become more exclusive and choosy. When responsibilities of job, career and marriage descend, we make friends for all sorts of reasons and needs. And in our old age, we realise that all we have in this world are a handful of good friends.

In our lifetime, we have many different kinds of friends. The ideal friendship would be that of Damon and Pythias of ancient Greece, who were prepared to die for each other. Any of your friends like this?

Doubtful, huh? Our friends are more likely to be this guy, who was once chased by a bear while walking in a forest with his friend. When he knelt down to retie his shoes securely, his flustered friend warned him that you can’t outrun a bear. Our guy calmly answered, “I need to outrun only you.” Ahh, now many faces and names come to you, don’t they?

As for imaginary friends, everyone has had at least one in their lives. They are as important to us as Hobbes the stuffed tiger is to his friend Calvin.

Sometimes, we have frenemies, friends who are also our enemies. Don’t we all know someone who we’d like to murder, but can’t exist without? Just imagine Tom the Cat when Jerry Mouse isn’t around.

Some friendships happen in a crisis. Crewman Tom Jones from Wales and Lady Lucy Martha, Countess of Rothes, found themselves together on lifeboat eight when the Titanic sank. Being the only other person on the boat who knew how to row and operate the tiller, she was able to steer them to the rescue ship, the Carpathia. They never met again, but every year, she sent him a Christmas letter and a pound.

Some people start off as friends, become enemies, and then friends again. During the days of the American Revolutionary War in America, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were very good friends. Jefferson’s political ambitions pulled them apart, but they became friends again later. They even died on the same day, July 4, 1826. Friends from their West Point days, Ulysses Grant and James Longstreet fought on opposite sides of the Civil War, but joined up again later.

Some friendships are doomed by disillusionment. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini were great friends, until the latter debunked Conan Doyle’s belief in the occult. Mary Todd Lincoln’s best friend was former slave-turned-dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley... until Keckley published a tell-all book about the first family.

Another pair of unlikely friends were Helen Keller and Mark Twain. Twain, who was 45 years older than Keller, seemed to intuitively understand her difficulties. Keller was also very good friends with Alexander Graham Bell, to whom she dedicated her autobiography.

Bitter tennis rivals Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert are great friends, who still call each other in the middle of the night. In fact, Chris’s mother was one of Martina’s biggest supporters, and, after the finals, the two used to travel to the next tournament together. Similarly, rival music composers Wolfgang Mozart and Joseph Haydn were very good friends too.

In today’s entertainment business, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and George Clooney and Brad Pitt are examples for Bromance, while comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler represent Womance.

Whatever the kind, we should celebrate our friendships, since, as Katherine Mansfield said, “The truth is friendship is every bit as sacred and eternal as marriage.”
Happy friendship day!