http://hk.zorpia.com/fakhr85 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:14 EST Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:14 EST Zorpia.com http://hk.zorpia.com/fakhr85/journal/1887652 <font face="Times New Roman" color="#330000" size="4"> <p align="left">“O my friends, there are no friends.” - Aristotle</p><font face="Times New Roman" color="#330000" size="4"> <p align="left">A friend is a person capable of loving irrespective of whether he is being loved or not. Friendship can exist between the same sex: man-man, woman-woman, or opposite sex: man-woman. It transcends age and could subsist between even an old man and a small boy. Human beings also establish friendships with their pet animals such as cats, dogs, horses, doves and parrots. Friendship can also be felt in familial relationships between father and son, mother and daughter, husband and wife, brother and sister, elder brother and younger brother. Yet, more than friendship, love is the binding force in familial relationships. In a deeper sense, love is below friendship because it is an above/below relation, one of hierarchy and condition. It is implied, then, that friendship is freedom plus equality. It involves choice and volition. The concept of friendship needs exploration because often a man is known by the company he keeps; knowing the company helps one to know oneself and develop his personality to the fullest. Each of our friends mirrors a rejected or acknowledged trait in us. They happen to be our friends because it is ourselves in different forms, and a unified vision of them constitutes to the sameness of our identity. Generally, friendship exists for three reasons: a) virtue b) usefulness c) pleasure. When virtue is the reason, friendship exists for the sake of friendship; where both like each other and cherish each other for some creditable values in the other’s personality. You wish to be the friend of that person for the sheer personality that he/she has. It has a magic in itself. It attracts you. And it is mutual. You know that you would even die to swear your friendship for that person. But you also know that the other would make you live than die for him/her. It is somewhat platonic in concept inasmuch as the other may not be/ need not be all that intelligent and good looking, useful or capable of giving pleasure. A friendship of the second kind is formed for the utilitarian value of it. How useful so and so is to me? What can I benefit from him? Can I use his car? Will he use his reputation and influence to fetch me a good job? Will he lend me money in need? Thus a person may ask and maintains relationship for practical, professional, and political reasons.</p></font></font> Personal http://hk.zorpia.com/fakhr85/journal/1887652 Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:08 EST