Friendship (5/12/11)

I wrote this back in 2011 in May. I never posted it for some reason. Here it is now though.

There are all different types of friends.  Acquaintances, who blow in and out of our lives like a breeze or the seasons.  Friends, who take places in our lives but will move in and out as life moves along.  And then there are the best friends.  What I see as a pair of friends who care truly and deeply for each other,without looking for "what's in it for them".  There is love there, but not a romantic love.  I believe it's stronger to be honest.  As true love can be.  Not to say that romantic love isn't important, but it grows into something different.  This is why the best and longest lasting marriages are between "best friends" as I have seen through my own life.  These types of friends are rare.  I would guess that they are usually of the same sex, but not always.  I have found that it's the men who I have had the pleasure of being on this level of friendship with the most challenging.  For some reason, it is just very different than a best friend relationship with a woman.  In the past few weeks I lost someone  who I thought was a best friend due to choices she made that effected me deeply. This isn't the venue for the particulars of the situation (although not many read my blog, I'm trying to be as discreet as I can, because you never know).  The interesting thing is that were it a man who was the "best friend", things would be different. The choices that I made and my reactions.  I find this interesting when I set myself outside the situation and look at it as objectively as I can.  The truth of the matter is that as acquaintances come and go, friends stay on and "best friends" linger in our hearts and to lose one is heart-breaking.  But if they are lost, then were they ever a best friend to begin with? Or just a friend who stayed on a little longer or someone who didn't share whatever it was that made you believe they were who you thought they were to have made them a best friend.