Friendship in our materialistic age

FRIENDSHIP IN OUR MATERIALISTIC AGE

                                                  True, loyal and faithful friends are indeed our prized possession supposed to be treasured forever. Their friendship is timeless and eternal. “For without friends,” Aristotle says, “no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” Good friends are two bodies with one soul.

                                                   Regrettably and ironically, genuine friendship is hard to be found in our materialistic world where money and personal gains are considered as yardsticks or criteria for having friends. All the folk tales, stories, great sermons extolling the virtues and setting great standard of friendship seem to have lost their core meaning in our present age. The ideal friendship has been confined to books only. Its significance is reduced to nothingness in our jet-set age, where moral values are blurred and eclipsed by greed, avarice, self-aggrandizement, faithlessness and some other social evils and vices.

                                                     There was a time when it was unimaginable for a friend to cheat his friend. Cheating friends amounted to infidelity. Friends were considered two bodies with one soul. The spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of friend was common worthwhile quality. They were gelled together in adversity. They were always mindful of each other’s interests and give each other room to grow. Jealousy, envy, prejudice, hatred, greed, hypocrisy were foreign to them. They were all-weather friends, treating their friendship as something great, noble and holy. It is indeed very painful to say that such an ideal friendship is rare in our present era. In their wild attempt to be part of rat race to hanker after worldly riches and benefits, friends, shockingly, have adopted an indifferent and devil-may-care attitude towards their friends, who are less fortunate than they are. This who-cares attitude is a grim reminder that genuine friendship has been adversely affected by our irrational and inordinate desire of self-aggrandizement, setting aside all the basic moral values and ethics.

                                                           All this creates a bleak, depressing and pessimistic outlook. One wonders whether he will ever be able to have good friends in this materialistic world. The answer is a big “Yes”. One must hope for the better. Pessimism must be replaced by optimism. Despite the fact that materialism reigns supreme in our times, loyal and devoted friends can still be found provided we make concerted efforts to locate them and encourage them to come out and let people know true friendship still exists, although it lays hidden by being eclipsed and overwhelmed by negative elements of our society. But its disappearance is not permanent. It will shine again.

                                                             Friendship is a noble quality. We hate to lose or deprive ourselves of this great and wonderful possession of ours. We are all supposed to make sincere effort to keep friendship alive for our own sake. Remember, Friends have no substitute, no match, no even money, nothing whatsoever. Following are some useful suggestions to keep friendship still valuable and worthwhile:

1. To have a friend, be a friend.
2. Never test your friend. He/she might not be in a position, though they wish to, to come up with your expectations because of their own problems and compulsions.
3. Be sincere with your friends. Your sincerity will win their hearts, and they will reciprocate your love, sincerity and devotion.
4. All friendships have their ups and downs. Learning to put aside disagreements makes companionship long-lasting.
5. There should be frankness among friends for self-revelation. One must take friend’s criticism as seriously as their expressions of admiration or praise.
6. Friends must show their unity, faithfulness and loyalty.
7. Friendship contains some trial, but true friendship endures the test and ever grows from it.
8. Friends give more than they expect to receive.

In our age, when casual acquaintance often comes so easily and when intimacy comes too soon and cheaply, we can’t blink the fact that the plant of genuine friendship takes time to grow and prosper provided being watered by sincerity, love, dedication, devotion and , above all, the spirit of self-sacrifice.

True friendship is timeless. Circumstances may, sometimes, fade or eclipse it, but it cannot be completely effaced.