anagram061801

what is your definition of friendship?
[18 Jun 2001|12:47pm]
?

Responses....

camboi
2001-06-18 10:54 (from 209.142.16.152) (link)
someone who will love you and stick by you and support you no matter what.
that is my definition of a friend....

Honesty and Support
howief
2001-06-18 11:01 (from 66.27.136.58) (link)
Someone who is not afraid to tell you when you are wrong, but can do it nicely. Someone who knows when you are having a bad time and can back off. Someone who is fair.

johnboze
2001-06-18 11:07 (from 206.196.57.18) (link)
I tend to make friends very easily if I get to know someone. I probably call more peole friends than would call me a friend if asked. I can meet up with a friend after losing touch for years and after a bit of catch-up in conversation, consider tham the same friend they were before.

Also, now that I think about it, I can't remember ever thinking to myself that someone had done something to make them no longer my friend. There are a number of mutual friends of my ex-wife and myself who won't talk to me, but I don't count them as enemies. Its a little sad.

Somewhat scary as well, I suppose. I could really get taken advantage of if I had something someone wanted. I suppose I've been lucky so far...

3sidedcoin
2001-06-18 11:08 (from 209.176.193.65) (link)
A friend is someone who, despite your faults, see's the true value of your companionship. A friend is someone who improves your outlook on life, someone who makes you feel good to be around. A friend is someone who is able to point out things that you do wrong and take the extra step in helping you improve upon it. A friend is someone who can listen to your problems and look you in the eye with honest compassion. A friend is someone who hurts with you.

blonnie
2001-06-18 11:09 (from 207.199.149.3) (link)
a friend to me is:

someone who overlooks your weaknesses (because we all have them) and even loves you for your little quirks.

someone who loves you for who you are and doesn't expect you to change (or want you to)

someone who gives equally to the relationship and has as much time for me as i am required (by them) to have for them.

someone who doesn't constantly tell you what is wrong with yourself but instead what is right with yourself.. maybe they offer advice but usually only when it's asked for.

someone who doesn't talk about me behind my back and instead tells me to my face when they have a problem with me.. - and that's probably the biggest one of all.. in my opinion. because they could act like my friend all day while they're in front of me and act like my worst enemy when i'm not around to notice.. i've had a few people in my life like that but it was usually due to highschool bickering.

someone who i speak to occasionally or often and knows that i love them regardless.

Yeah....
rottenstar
2001-06-18 11:24 (from 151.204.192.193) (link)
I completely agree with you. Well said! But I would like to add a quote that I once heard.

"My friends accept things in me, that I don't even accept in myself."

unquietmind
2001-06-18 11:29 (from 12.33.4.226, via 12.33.4.35) (link)
a friend is someone who loves me when i am unlovable, comforts me when I’m inconsolable, shares my joy and shares their joy with me. a friend is someone who tells me when i’ve fucked up, but offers to hold my hand while i fix my mistakes. a friend will accept my apology and offer forgiveness. a friend is not afraid to be honest with me. a friend does not keep score. a friend knows i offer these things to them, unconditionally.

wiseblood
2001-06-18 11:39 (from 128.59.33.30) (link)
Friendship is mutual usefulness.

Despite what idealists say, all relationships are conditional. I don't accept the "no matter what" clause people like to use. When we see a friend going through personal trouble, certainly we help them, because we value everything they've been for us. But if that friend is an ingrate or betrays our trust and concern, they sure as hell do get dropped like the nasty thing they are. Clinging to people who are no longer useful is an unhealthy thing.
But if a person continues to be useful, if they share and reciprocate emotionally and in all the other ways that matter, they are a treasure above all things, worth more than all the money in the world can buy.

I think there are matters of degree though. One doesn't expect much from a passing acquaintance. And one may even have very dear friends that you may nevertheless not trust enough to leave them in your apartment alone. They are friends of limited usefulness, but sufficient to be worth keeping in touch with.
Perhaps what we're really trying to grasp for is a definition of "true" friendship. The 'treasure' friends that I referred to above. These are the people that you just know will still be a joy to know even decades hence. Those are rare, and such a special thing should never be taken for granted. They should be tended and maintained with diligence, like a hothouse flower, and every pain should be taken to keep them loving you and desiring to do as much for you as you do for them.

celestyna
2001-06-18 16:11 (from 205.162.11.164) (link)
amen, w.

it sounds cold to some people, but in truth it isn't at all.
while you should *always* keep in mind what that person has meant to you and done for you, friendship often has to be a transient thing. it lasts as long as it does, for whatever reasons it does. you learn about yourself, you learn about others. there is no edict that says a "good friend" is anything based on time alone, and many people just seem to cling too hard to the concept just because they're afraid of being lonely.

be grateful that that person was there when they were, be pleased with yourself that you could return the blessing when you could,

some of the most beautiful people in the world are people that change to better themselves. not everyone can change

Despite any temporal independancies I may have, my concept of a friend is still:
-someone that understands, or tries to understand, what you're going thru in that period of your life
- someone who's constantly enabling me to reach my goal and isn't afraid to look me in the eye and tell me i'm slackin (kinda the opposite of the concept of just having someone to bitch and moan around. lol.)
- someone that lets me inside as much as i let them inside
- some i can shoot the breeze with
- someone that doesn't mind my oddness
- someone that don't treat me like a stepchild

plus, there are "friends" for different things. There are friends to go out dancing with, there are friends to stay in and paint with, there are friends that are there for therapy, friends that are there to fuck shit up with.

of course, i'm highly biased. I move around alot and change phases of life alot. I'm thankful for all of my connections, no matter how brief, though I do prize people the most who have been there repeatedly. there are still people i have and will lay almost everything on the line for in their time of need and vice versa.

damn, i sure can ramble. you touched a spot with that one.

meredith
2001-06-18 11:49 (from 207.88.244.42) (link)
From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) (gazetteer)

Friendship, AR (town, FIPS 25180) Location: 34.22375 N, 93.00301 W Population (1990): 160 (69 housing units) Area: 1.9 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 71942 Friendship, IN Zip code(s): 47021 Friendship, MD Zip code(s): 20758 Friendship, ME Zip code(s): 04547 Friendship, NY (CDP, FIPS 27694) Location: 42.20544 N, 78.14240 W Population (1990): 1423 (544 housing units) Area: 7.3 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 14739 Friendship, TN (city, FIPS 27960) Location: 35.91030 N, 89.24176 W Population (1990): 467 (210 housing units) Area: 1.8 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 38034 Friendship, WI (village, FIPS 27950) Location: 43.97179 N, 89.81999 W Population (1990): 728 (298 housing units) Area: 2.3 sq km (land), 0.1 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 53934

I think she asked "What" not "Where"
howief
2001-06-18 12:02 (from 66.27.136.58) (link)
But I'll take some levity and amusement at this point anyway. What a dreary week this has been! :)

Thanks, I'm sure a few of us needed that.

Howie

Re: I think she asked
meredith
2001-06-18 12:08 (from 207.88.244.42) (link)
"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Re: I think she asked
stacy
2001-06-19 20:40 (from 216.27.150.163) (link)
truer words were never spoken.

Friends
btripp
2001-06-18 12:21 (from 205.253.18.199) (link)
A friend is somebody I'd trust covering my back in a firefight ...

A friend is somebody I have a pretty good expectation of not letting me down when I'm counting on them ...

A friend is somebody who can disappear for years and then show up one day and fall right back into synch, as if picking up a conversation ...

A friend is somebody who will allow me my insanity, but call me on it when it starts to become stupidity ...

However, I also REALLY like folks who sign up in my downline!

egads... friendship
watrfae
2001-06-18 12:48 (from 207.78.131.121) (link)
it knows no bounds of age/race/religion/space (ie. location)
it is 2 hearts, connecting for laughter, heart-ache and a good cup of coffee.

workroom
2001-06-18 14:37 (from 162.83.167.205) (link)

someone you care enough about that you preview your comments before sending...

a friend will care for you like you were her own
frannywentzel
2001-06-18 15:10 (from 152.163.213.202) (link)

friends
glitchmusic
2001-06-18 17:40 (from 24.24.172.5) (link)
a friend is someone who can make a joke at your expense, and still make you laugh hysterically at it.

glitchmusic
linkfilter.net

Friendship....
jadenkun
2001-06-18 17:49 (from 152.163.204.82) (link)
Hmmm... a friend is someone who loves you for who you are, but is wiling to help you if by chance your way of livng gets you in a major bind.
A friend is someone who knows your faults, and sometimes even cushions things for you when they see it coming.
A friend is someone who is willing to defend you even if they end up getting hurt because of it.
A friend is someone who stands b your side if you're too scared to do something by yourself.
A friend is someone who is more than willing to stand in the backstage area to help you have your moment in the spotlight.
And lastly, a friend is someone who is willing to step off if they feel they are a burden to you, for the most precious gift they can give you is your freedom.
I guess, all in all, frendship is another form of love. I guess that's all! ^^

serendipity
2001-06-18 22:39 (from 208.176.191.135) (link)
Friendship is a wide, strong, and durable Comfort Zone between two individuals. Friendship is greater than the sum of its two parts. It brings out the best in both as it minimizes or works through the worst. Friendship is joy multiplied and grief divided.

Friendship is a deep, abiding appreciation and respect between two people. It's an outward reflection of each other's inner beings. It requires empathy, compassion, understanding, acceptance, patience, and good humor.

Friendship is sustenance.

Friends
theshark
2001-06-19 00:30 (from 152.163.205.56) (link)
I think a true friend is the one person in the whole world that knows you better then you know ourself, and no matter what you ever do or say they will love you regardless, and will support any and all choices you make good or bad...

lonna
2001-06-19 00:47 (from 213.51.129.131) (link)
not seeing eacht other for 2 years, meeting up and everything being exactly the same as it was.

plus someone being there for you always, no matter what. without judging you.

stacy
2001-06-19 20:39 (from 216.27.150.163) (link)
about two years ago i re-found somebody like that, except that we hadn't seen each other for six years. we met in high school at camp and we were roommates in college, but somehow we just lost touch. then i found her again, and everything is the same, only better. we're 30 now, have been friends since 16, and i mean REAL friends...the kind you can actually trust with your secrets...how many people can say that?

plus, it turns out her current roommate is probably the most hysterically funny person i've ever met, and we became instant friends. our friendship has just grown closer over the past two years. i got really lucky on that whole situation.

gerry
2001-06-19 04:56 (from 212.35.34.198) (link)

i friend is someone who can sleep with my girlfriend without the danger to get my enemy

Friend
bambulu
2001-06-19 07:12 (from 200.187.175.4) (link)
A friend is a friend is a friend, is a friend.

liafall
2001-06-19 21:15 (from 24.44.161.129) (link)
someone who puts up with you just the way you are...someone who doesn't treat you like dirt....someone who can call you a jerk and you can call them a jerk but you find a way to make it all better in the end...someone who knows you are weird and likes you anyway...

friend:
silvervice
2001-06-20 08:54 (from 65.33.180.199) (link)
For me, a friend is someone who gives and takes but isn't concerned with equal ratios - an eye for an eye, a gift for a gift. I don't put into the equation that a friend has to be my hero when I'm caught in a burning building. However, they'd be the ones to call the fire department, splash water on the flames, wish for rain, or say a prayer. Any friend of mine is a humanitiarian. They're someone who, within reason, would risk their life for a degenerate, crack-pushing pimp if need be.
A friend is someone who will listen, truely listen, and be selfless in their responce, critisism, objections and judgement.
Besides having my safety at heart, they respect me as an individual, my opinions matter to them to some degree, they'd pick me up when I'm down, try to catch me when I fall, don't mind if I cry on their shoulder and understand that I make mistakes too.

In a word
adman
2001-06-20 23:00 (from 24.69.216.76) (link)
TRUST!