[Iceman-bass14]

Originally Posted by Michael_rev

There bad friends.

If i think someone is 'bad' or is a bad friend im most likely not gonna be friends with them.

Yes there are friends that may be closer to you than other people that you consider friends,but to me organizing them gets to be almost cliquish and i dont like cliques.

[Michael_rev]

well its not cliquish, its just order of which friends are more reliable, trustworthy, honest, and one that stabs you in the front. I went to highschool. I had 23 or more "friends" After i graduated, i only had 3 or 4. Thats how it is for alot of people. Only a handful of people are true friends.

[DaGeek]

The question I have is this: What's the point of categorizing them? What purposes could that possibly serve? I'm not saying this to attack, I'm just curious. What would be the desired result?

[thesteve]

Originally Posted by Michael_rev

well its not cliquish, its just order of which friends are more reliable, trustworthy, honest, and one that stabs you in the front. I went to highschool. I had 23 or more "friends" After i graduated, i only had 3 or 4. Thats how it is for alot of people. Only a handful of people are true friends.

that's typical. I was a fairly well known guy in high school because I was both an athlete and on both academic teams. Six years later I only regularly talk to 1 person from high school. It's not an issue of "true friends" and "not true friends". People just grow apart. The people I was friends with in high school are now just acquaintances. That doesn't make them bad friends or me a bad friend. It just means that we've separated and gone our separate ways.

[Michael_rev]

yeah, but if they really did like you then they might have stuck around. and been true freinds. I can understand distance and other complications but if they still live in the same city and they were true frinds in highschool, why not now? True friends stay close no matter what happens,

[thesteve]

Originally Posted by Michael_rev

yeah, but if they really did like you then they might have stuck around. and been true freinds. I can understand distance and other complications but if they still live in the same city and they were true frinds in highschool, why not now? True friends stay close no matter what happens,

It doesn't have anything to do with whether or not they liked you. There's a myriad of reasons that people don't stay close. I don't think many of those reasons have to do with whether or not they were a "true friend".

[Iceman-bass14]

Michael i found it interesting that your only 'true friends' you listed are God and your girlfriend.What about your family?

[tlj009]

"Me, I'm riding along, minding my own business. Four cowboys come by and we decide to ride together for a while, friendly as can be. I always figure you might as well approach life like everybody's your friend or nobody is; don't make much difference. We get out in the middle of that frying pan and suddenly everybody's pointing their gun but me. I guess they admired my horse." Paden, Silverado

[tht00]

I like Aristotle's model for friendship. It goes something like this:

There are 3 types of friendship.

--Friendship of utility. This is about mutual benefit. Examples could be co-workers or study-partners. Lasts only as long as the benefit of working together does.

--Friendships of pleasure. This is more about fun or pursuit of common interest. Examples could be teammates in a sport or drinking buddies. When the source of pleasure goes away, so do the friends.

--Friendship of good/virtue are friends simply on the basis developing good in each other. This can be considered a 'true' friendship. These friendships are not based on utility or pleasure, but on mutual respect/love.

Aristotle states that both people involved in a true friendship must be virtuous and that having true friends is the way to 'the good life'.


In any case, I mostly agree with Aristotle's assessment and breakdown of friendships and that it's a great starting point, but I don't feel that you can classify all friendships in just these three groups, but perhaps in degrees of each. Just as there are more colors than the 3 primary ones, I would point to a similar comparison when dealing with friendships.

[Michael_rev]

aristotle was a smart man. More than any of us.

[Random:Dice]

I would say true friends dont mind just hanging out and feeling comfortable not talking, or having heated debates that turn into arguments not effect our friendship. A lot of my 'aqauintences' at school i would call my 'friends' just because they are nice people to me and dont offend me, ya know?

[t3dwb]

True freinds are named Jesus, all the others are just aquaintances!!

[Dr. Worm]

Originally Posted by t3dwb

True freinds are named Jesus, all the others are just aquaintances!!

That's a very depressing view of human relationships. True friends may not always be perfect, but avoiding true friendships with people because of their imperfections is a terrible way to go through life. If we cannot consider others true friends, or be true friends to people ourselves, we are going to end up having a very sad and empty life. If you never let yourself care that much about others, and never make yourself vulnerable, and remain just acquaintances with everyone, you may avoid some pain, but you miss out on so much joy and warmth and depth and amazement and wonder. Yeah, people mess up. But if we're not forming true friendships with people, then what on earth are we doing here?

[t3dwb]

I did not say that I don't have any friends, I actually have lots. 3 named Fender, 2 named Gibson, 1 named Martin, 1 named Taylor,, and one named Jay Turser.

[Iceman-bass14]

Originally Posted by t3dwb

I did not say that I don't have any friends, I actually have lots. 3 named Fender, 2 named Gibson, 1 named Martin, 1 named Taylor,, and one named Jay Turser.

And he was talking about human friends.

Would you consider your spouse a true friend?What about family members?If you dont and really do consider Jesus as your only true friend Iam very sorry.