One of my favorite poems on the topic, given to me on a plaque many, many years ago by a school friend.

A Friend's Prayer

O, Lord,
Let me be a companion in joy and a comforter in sorrow.
Help me find the courage to say what needs saying and the wisdom to know what doesn't.
Let me care always--and always find ways to show how much I care.
Let me be the kind of person who can always be trusted, confided in, counted on.
In every true sense of the word,
Let Me Be A Friend.

Sadly, I fall short of this so very much of the time, but it's one of my favorite descriptions of friendship.

Interestingly, I posted this in my LJ many years ago, prompted to do so by a post you made in 2006. My post can be found here.

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We all fall short of this one, I think. But I love that you and I have always thought about friendship is such similar ways. No wonder we found each other in TS fandom. :-D

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A friend listens even if they don't agree with you.

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Oh, very good one.

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I think a friend give you permission to be who you really are.

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I love this, yes.

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The first word to come to my mind as a defining characteristic of friendship is "loyalty".

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Which is why I was so unnerved at university, when people seemed to drop friends every time they had new classes!

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We need a word for "person who is closer than an acquaintance, but not as close as a (good) friend".

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Yeah. And maybe to figure out some new term for "best friend" while we're at it (but that one could be just me grousing *g*).

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Not the least of the virtues of the Harry Potter books is their showing young people that a boy and a girl could be best friends without sex coming into it. (Mind you, the snog between Harry and Hermione conjured up by Ron's jealous imagination in the first "Deathly Hallows" movie is just about the most erotic thing I've ever seen on screen!)

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Ah, indeed. That's why I loved the added scene in the first Deathly Hallows film... because it was a perfect wordless encapsulation of the Harry & Hermione friendship.

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A friend is someone who just thinking about them makes you smile.

And yes, that is something that more often gets mentioned in the context of romance but it's still true.

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Oh, yes! And someone whose voice you are always glad to hear when you pick up the phone.

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A friend is someone who helps you when you ask for help, and also when you can't.

I think friendship is undervalued in our society (and definitely fandom in particular). Now that I'm an adult, my friendship are the defining relationships of my life.

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Oh, nice one. Yes.

I think friendship is undervalued in our society (and definitely fandom in particular). Now that I'm an adult, my friendship are the defining relationships of my life.

So. Sadly. True.

I mean, I've come to realize that some people just take it so much for granted that they just don't bother talking about it, but.... Especially in a culture where we are single longer and longer, close non-romantic relationships are just so, so important and precious.

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C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves:

"Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship, naked personalities."

Friendship is that world where you have all confidence to share anything with another person, and they do the same.

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Ffff, yes! I completely forgot about that quote. That's it exactly.

And that's one reason I adore my fiance so much; we've got both eros and philia, which really contributes to the fact that we want to (can't stand not to) spend our entire lives together.

Naked personalities, oh, yes. Definitely.

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