The Friend

There are lots and lots of people who are always asking things,
Like Dates and Pounds-and-ounces and names of funny Kings,
And the answer's always Sixpence or a Hundred Inches Long.
And I know they'll think me silly if I get the answer wrong.
So Pooh and I go whispering, and Pooh looks very bright,
And says, "Well, I say sixpence, but I don't suppose I'm right."
And then it doesn't matter what the answer ought to be,
'Cos if he's right, I'm Right, and if he's wrong, it isn't Me.

Friendship Has No Fear

A soldier approached his officer; seeking his permission to fetch his friend, not yet back from the battlefield. The officer refused permission stating that his friend would be probably dead. There was no point in going out and losing his life, too, the officer said.

Unmindful of the consequence, the soldier went and an hour later returned, mortally wounded, carrying his dead friend.

The officer was furious; “Ï told you he was dead. Now I’ve lost both of you. Tell me, was it worth going out there to bring in a corpse”

The dying man replied, “Öh, it was sir. When I got to him he was still alive. And he said to me, ‘Jack, I was sure you would come.”

Friendship has no fear. It expresses itself in sacrifice. Humanity survives purely because of love for each other.

The Prophet On Friendship

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love
and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger
and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not

the 'nay' in your mind,
nor do you withhold the 'ay'.
And when he is silent
your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship,
all thoughts, all desires, all exceptions are born and shared,
with joy that is unchained.

When you part from your friend,
you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him
may be clearer in his absence,
as the mountain to the climber
is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship
save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught
but the disclosure of its own mystery
is not love but a net cast forth:
and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide,
let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend
that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need,
but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship
let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things
the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

--- Kahlil Gibran