Friends

This was a story I attained from an outing to mass in Church of the
Holy Family, Kajang by our local CSS MMU Cyberjaya :)
In Kajang, we met CSS UCSI, and also CSS UTAR, and then, after the
mass, all of CSS UCSI people and MMU fellows went for makan-makan at
the chinese stalls nearby..

While eating, someone (from UCSI) got a message which touched me a lot..

It was a short story, but sent in one single SMS. It was initially in
chinese, but we requested one of our chinese friends from MMU to
translate it. I listened intently to the whole thing. It goes like this...

One day, there were two friends walking along a desert. They were
chatting and talking about many things, and when they touched on a
certain topic they started arguing and bickering with each other.
Turning out to be a heated argument, one of them slaps the other on
the face.
Then, feeling sad and crying, he/she (not mentioned) bent down on the
sand of the hot desert and wrote "Today, my friend ..(name).. has
slapped me on the face, and I feel so sad and disappointed. "

Continuing their journey, they stumbled upon an oasis (a very rare
area of the desert which has water), and then both of them started to
get excited and jumped into the water. Minutes later one of them (the
one who got slapped earlier) started to drown in the water, and then
his (just using 'his' for future reference) friend swam towards that
direction of the call for help to save him. He successfully caught
hold of him, dragged him to safety and brought him out of the water.

Feeling very grateful, in front of him, a large stone wall, he took a
small stone found on the ground and carved words onto the large stone
saying "Today, my friend has saved my life, and I feel so grateful and
thankful."

Soon as they continued on their journey, his friend (the one who
slapped the other and saved his life) asked him, 'why are you writing
every single event or thing that happens between us? You wanna keep a
diary in the desert?'
His friend replied,

"Writing on the sand is for sad and dreadful things, things that we
should forget. Writing on the stone wall, on the other hand, is for
good deeds that we should remember. Why, because the words on the
sand, will be gushed and blown away and everything written will be
disappeared and forgotten after a very short while; however, words
carved on the stone wall will remain; and hence always stays there for
us to see."

email shared from a friend - eugene (CMO-KLCC)
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We know many people through our lives some may leave an impact bad or good many more might not. How many around us are really friends? Or are they just mere acquaintance? Who and what are friends ? Oxford definition :
A
1 A person joined by affection and intimacy to another, independently of sexual or family love.
2 A near relation. Usu. in pl., those responsible for one.
3 A person who is not hostile or an enemy to another; one who is on the same side.
4 A person who wishes another, a cause, etc., well; a sympathizer, helper, patron,
a supporter of an institution etc., who regularly contributes money or other help.
A helpful thing. LME. c A person who acts for another, esp. (Hist.) as a second
in a duel. E19.
5 An acquaintance, an associate; a stranger whom one comes across or has occasion to mention again.
6 A romantic or sexual partner, a lover. Now a euphemism exc. where qualified as boyfriend, girlfriend, lady-friend, man-friend, etc. LME.
7 (F-.) A member of the Society of Friends. M17.

So ur friends are under which 'A'?
There are many people out there too in disguise of being a friend to you actually is not - they back stab, use you, do not respect you for who you are, take you for granted, stain your image, brings u down etc etc.

How nice if there are really true friends?? this will only occur is everyone in a society your are in have the same mentality of being a true friend for one another.
To break this bond all it needs is mistrust, selfishness, fear and low self esteam of ONE person who will form a vicious cycle creating problems in a group ending up no one trusting each other. I have seen that happening and it saddens. Lots of caliber found within them could not be used to benefit themselves by working together.

I remember times when we were told to make friends then it came a time to be careful which friend you chose (u chose a group to befriend) then be careful who you chose as friends (need resumes now to join the club - cliques appear - i have no cliques in 98% of my life). Further it went trust only a few friends but now dreadfully trust no one. So if you dont trust anyone u would end up on your own and when u r on ur own u need to survive thus doing whatever it takes to survive thus being selfish. Now this is a cycle as ur action will directly or indirectly affect those around you and vice versa everybody will become untrustworthy to everybody. How then to happily live in such environment. Its difficult to be good for people will take you for granted and as a joke. At the same time u cant do bad for these 'friends' are like vultures too waiting for one to do a mistake then use it to bring u dwn even after many years too. what is this world getting into now???

Sadly a 'friend' for me in today's world has become just mere acquaintance. Very few (can count with fingers) will remain true good friends.

Friends including good friends too, come and go and also many times forgotten. But that is ok as long as during that short period of friendship time, quality relationship had developed. And happy moments were etched in memory.