A saying goes thus; “A friend in need
is a friend in deed”
Ennius (circa 239–169 BCE) observed amicus
certus in re incerta cernitur (“a sure friend is known in
unsure times”).
Does this saying truly hold water? I
have come to the realization of the fact that no matter how good a man is or
steadfast thereof, he won’t be able to bethe rock that a friend needs at all
times.
I have come to realise that those
that will like you, will definitely do so, and those that will detest you will
do that irrespective of how good you are to them.
Humans a very fickle and often times
will try to take advantage of those that are sympathetic to their plight and
readily available to offer assistance at any given time. Ironically, in
bountiful times their preferred company are those who scarcely treat them well,
but are probably more socially adept/appealing.
Truth remains though, that no matter
how good you are, you must learn right from the onset of any friendship not to
leave the impression that you can be counted upon for (100 per cent) reliance
at any given time of day. Humanly speaking, that is unsustainable. There is a
limit to which any man can be stretched. If you keep stretching to your limits,
you will just be expected to stretch some more and the moment you don’t, you
will be tagged as someone who was pretending in the past. In modern parlance
they will say – “you are not real”.
The silly part with contemporary man,
is that they tag individuals who display brashness, unconcern, pride,
self-centredness and offish characters as people who are real, or people who
are true to themselves.
The world generally feels that no one
can genuinely exhibit good traits, and the moment you do that or attempt to do
that, they tag you as being pretentious. Sadly enough, they will be waiting
around for you to falter and at the slightest mistake they blow the trumpet
saying they were justified in tagging you as pretentious. They will state that
the one error you made is your true self.
We often tend to forget that no
matter how morally upright or religious one is, we are first and foremost
humans, which is a word very much in consonance with fallibility. No one is
perfect, there will always be moments were we err.
The fact that an individual lied once
does not make him innately a liar. Tragically, the world prefers those who
habitually lie, steal, cheat, (and so on) and proclaim themselves as such to
those who try to live in a straight and narrow way but end up erring once.
Seeing our values and definitions of morality being inverted
hurts me badly. Good is now being tagged as bad and vice versa.
We need to look within ourselves and realise what is
good, rather than conforming to the propaganda of a few……
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