What is Friendship?

credit
Normally, I am quite political on this blog. I see it as an opportunity to express myself behind a certain curtain of anonymity and make it clear for my views to be heard throughout the world.
I'm going to depart from that for this post. I want to share with you what friends mean to me. I'm going to ask a few basic questions that I always ask when I argue a point, present some other views on this second-most basic unit of society (as well as the first, the family). These questions are, "Who are our friends, what do they do, why and how do they do it, and where are our friends located? What role do they play in our lives?
"What has been the media's role in teaching us what friendship is? Is there such a thing as fake, or delusional friendship? What about internet friends? How do they effect our lives? Is that effect good or bad?"




Let me begin by telling a story. Last evening, I was exchanged some heated words with a friend, who I thought I had grown close to over the past year. This individual has shown tendencies to drive people off, but I made a choice to stay close to them. I would defend them behind their back. Yet, through someone he has met in person fewer times than I can count on two hands, he decided last night that I "wasn't a good friend", and took it as on opportunity to attack my character, my actions, and even dragged my lovely girlfriend into the middle of it.
Repeatedly in the past he has needled me. He showed an ability to ruin any good conversation. Yet, because of his ability to give, I knew he couldn't be all bad. So I made the effort to help him sort his thoughts and intentions out. I remained patient with him and his actions. Not going into detail here, I will simply say that my kindness was tried, but I continued to look for good.
You might be asking why he would throw this out the window. I'm still trying to figure that out. But I can say that I am positive that his perception of friendship is warped. More to come.