Friends?!

There is a tide in the affairs of men.

Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat,

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224h, 

Shakespeare here insinuates that opportunities are rare and that we have to be vigilant in protecting not only the opportunities to succeed but the opportunities to laugh, embrace the enchantment of life and to live. 

But should this success come at the price of losing friends along the way? Should we just accept that people grow distant or is there a reason what we fight for some friendships and not others? Is this choice, a choice of personal growth and progression over a companion, a selfish one, or is it self-less? Perhaps there is an instinct within us that tells us which friendships to fight for and which to let slip.

Today I witnessed the failure of a great friendship, one which had spanned years of change and personal growth. Neither person fought to re-ignite what had been, instead they accepted the reality of their situation and the unwillingness of one party to sustain a friendship during their university education. 

Some would say letting go does not mean giving up but rather accepting things that cannot be, but is that not the same?  or does it take more heart, more consideration to let go. Is 'to let go' to set something free and to allow that person to move on. 

Many of us left school on the promise of a friendship that would last forever. But can a friendship really survive forever when people are moving on to new opportunities? To open one door surely means to close another... right?

Wrong...

'Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove: Oh no! it is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.' Shakespeares 116 sonnet. 

A true love, a true friendship, is one that does not waver, Shakespeare says, with any alteration of circumstance, rather it is a lighthouse which stands steady whenever shaken. 

A true love then can outlast opportunity or change and to willingly let go means one has never loved truly for the loss of true love is a loss so devastating that one should never love or be loved again.

Until next time xPCx