Sunday, February 14, 2010

صديق / 朋友 / Ami / Freund / φίλος / יָדִיד / मित्र / ともだち / 친구

It's Chinese New Year and it's Valentine's Day. Family and romantic partners get together for fun, laughter and joy. So what's missing?

To me, friendships are a very important part of my life. Not that family's not, but I think a lot more about friendship, maybe because it's more complex. Sadly, I'm one of few that feels that way.

What defines a close friend to me? I was asking this question a while back, but couldn't find a definitive answer. Now, though, I think I have one. A close friend is someone who will share your joy and sorrow as though it were their own. I experienced this personally myself only recently. I guess you would regard someone as close if, when they were suffering or in pain, you felt it as well and conversely, would feel happy for them when they did. This is in contrast to just a friend or acquaintance who would probably try to help, but not feel anything much.

In this respect recent events have reaffirmed how I feel about my friends, especially this one. I think sometimes, friends are the best means of support, because sometimes you'd feel awkward talking to your family members, or they might not be able to help much. Obviously partners who you share a solely romance-based relationships wouldn't be a good idea either because relationships like that with no foundation in friendship can be unstable. As the saying goes "Joy shared is joy doubled, sorrow shared is sorrow halved", and I'm thankful to have people who I can share my joys and sorrows in, and I really hope I can be the same sort of person to them.

While everyone is thanking their family and their partners, here's a shout out to those people who fall into neither category, but who deserve recognition all the same. They may not be many, but they're more than enough for me:

ベン
ポール
ジンジュン
フイジュン
ジェレミ
シュオチアン

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