Today I was lucky enough to have lunch with some friends from high school.  We are all graduates of the class of 1972.  Out of the five David Tripp has the title of longest friend.  We have been friends since second grade.  I was one of those that fought being a part of social media however, we were all reunited by social media.  For that I am thankful.

On the drive home I had some windshield time and I thought about how our friendships had endured over all the years.  It was like we hadn’t really been apart.  I also started thinking about friendship and how many different types of friendships there are and the following is what I came up with in my mind.

Associates:  I consider these friends, people who you may work with or interact with on occasion but have no personal relationship with.

Intellect:  This is the friend who is a whole lot smarter than you and they share their knowledge with you when you need to make an important decision and need the facts to do so.

Mother Teresa/counselor:   This friend gives spiritual, moral and emotional support.  The friend to talk to when you need some help to get through something you are having a problem dealing with yourself.

Atta Boy:  This is the friend that is there with you in the gym telling you that you can do one more rep or cheering you on and pushing you to finish an assignment.

Best Friend:  This is the friend who is all of the above and more.  The indispensable one.  The one that is there through thick and thin.  Your rock.  One who expects nothing in return.  I am a firm believer your spouse should be on the best friend list.  That should be a given.

The list above is what I call Positive friends.  Unfortunately there can be negative friends that some people for whatever reason, fail to notice these type of friends.  They are:

Parasites:  These friends will suck the life out of you to satisfy their needs and give you nothing in return.  When you need their help they are always busy.

Groupies:  These are friends that feed on people who have received a temporary wind fall and willing to spend it on these so called friends.  When the money dries up they are gone.

Users:  These are friends that will use your friendship to get them where they want to be and when they have accomplished their goal, on your back, they drop you like a hot potato.

Arsenic:  These are the friends who befriend you only to tear you down behind your back.  Personally I think it is triggered by jealousy.

The above is just my humble opinion.  Yea I am no one special but I think this is a pretty good breakdown of types of friendships.  That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

I can say with confidence that I do not have any negative friends in my life.  That is not to say that it hasn’t happened.  I just got smarter.

Friendship is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly.  Baltasar Gracian says, “True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island…to find one real friend in a life time is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.”  Remember the song that told us “you don’t know what you got til it’s gone”?  “True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.” – Charles Caleb Colton

Thanks for reading.  I hope you got something out of it.  Be kind to one another, share the love and God Bless you one and all.