By: Zhen Lin
I always hear kids saying something along the lines of “I don’t want to be friends with Sara, I don’t like her anymore.”
There is an Arabic tale: two friends traveled together in the desert. One day they quarreled. One hit another. The one who was beaten and humiliated wrote in the sand: “Today my good friend hit me.” They keep going forward. Due to the intolerable heat, the beaten one fainted. The other friend sacrificed what remained of his own water to save his suffering friend. When the beaten person wake up, he took a small sword and engraved in the stone: “Today my friend saved my life.” The friend asked curiously, “why did you write what I did last time on the sand but now engrave it on stone?” The man smiled and replied, “When you are hurt by a friend, write in an easy place, and the wind is responsible for wiping it. On the contrary, you are helped by a friend, we must keep it in the depths of the mind, where the wind cannot erase it.”
When two friends get along, it is often unintentional when one hurts another. But when one helps another, it always comes from sincerity. In routine life, even between the best of friends, there will be friction and discontent. Often, this friction results in misunderstandings and can ultimately break apart otherwise long-lasting friendships. We should forgive each other for petty fights and inadvertent damage. Bear in mind that you will make many sincere friends out of those whom you sincerely support.
The depth of friendship lies not only in the extent to which a friend likes your personality but also in the extent to which we tolerate each other’s weaknesses. In other words, if we respect them for who they are, we will find that they, in turn, will ultimately give us the same respect.
Sometimes, the most precious friendship is like the North Star: distant but eternal. Friendship is the moderator of our sorrow, the sinking of our stress, the sanctuary in our calamity, the counselor of our hesitation, and the freshener of our mind. It is something that should be treasured and preserved in the face of hardship.
