jonathan in the distance: playlist: friendship

we start our race thinking that we're alone. despite the sea of humanity around us, despite the mass of bodies moving beside us, we believe that we are alone in the endeavor that we have set before us, the only one undertaking the journey we have chosen to take. and so we go thinking we are the only ones going on our way, and that hence we do not want, should not need, will not have anyone else come with us.

but life soon teaches us otherwise. and as our race progresses and the miles add on and the road rises and the storms grow and chaos of the world takes its toll upon us, we learn that we're not alone, and that the humanity of bodies surrounding us have faces and names and feelings and thoughts and minds and souls, and that they are on journeys alongside us, perhaps not entirely identical but still moving in a direction and in a manner and in a way so very much the same to our own. and we come to learn then that we are not the only ones, and that perhaps we might want, possibly might need, probably do have some others go with us...we come to learn that it would be good to have a friend.

best friend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUubQj7g56E

the problem is how do we choose? how do we discern from the multitude about us those we want beside us? from those whose intentions we do not know? from those who could so easily choose to be our competitors? who can we look to as a friend?

unfortunately, the answer is just as hard as our race. we don't know anyone about us, so we can't discern who they are. we have too little information to make any judgment, so we can't know what they will do. and despite our best efforts, we can't read their intentions. and in all truth, everyone is likely to be a competitor. in short, we're never sure who we can look to as a friend.

you've got a friend in me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_284Y8Wu7c

and so we're forced to learn the hard way, going through people in droves, making such mistakes through so much misfortune over the so many souls passing through our lives just to accumulate through painful experience the lessons that we unfortunately have to come to know:

people can claim to be our friends, but they won't be really. they may say they're our friends, and act like our friends, and feel like our friends, and even be our friends, especially when things are good and everything is easy. but then, at the most inexplicable moments at the most difficult times under the most terrible circumstances, they'll prove to deceive us leave us betray us hurt us for that which will suit their own ends, leaving us in the wreckage on the road side with no one other than ourselves for company.

with a little help from my friends: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wG6Cgmgn5U

but sometimes, however, we'll find something else. sometimes by accident. sometimes by chance. sometimes in ways we never expected. sometimes we'll find someone. sometimes someone we know. sometimes someone a stranger. sometimes at the most inexplicable moments at the most difficult times under the most terrible circumstances. and they'll prove to be honest and stay with us and be loyal to us and help us even though it means sacrificing their own race just so that we can get back into ours...and it's then we know how we choose a friend:

a friend is someone who would and will and want to share with you offer to you give for you their last water their last food their last parts when times are toughest and the journey is the worst, for no other reason than to see you make your way on the long road that lies so far so hard so long ahead and that, above all, you finish it to its conclusion.

lean on me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wpof8s5ZTg

stand by me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbg7YoXiKn0

and it's then that we come to know the meaning of friendship. we come to know the meaning of not being alone.

and because of all the pain and all the suffering of all the experiences from all the people we've learned were not our friends, we've come to learn the full value of what that word truly means.

we've come to learn that friends--true friends--are rare. they're special. they're wondrous and magical in ways we cannot really say and in ways that we can really only know.

and friendship--true friendship--is deep. it's powerful. it's profound. in ways that we cannot understand and in ways that we can really only experience.

and from what we know and what we experience, we can say and understand that they enrich the journey that is our lives and embolden the endeavor we have chosen to undertake and taught us that in this race--our race--we are not alone...and that this does make a difference.

and for that, they are beautiful.

bridge over troubled water: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_a46WJ1viA