The Flip-side of Friendship

Don't believe your friends when they ask you to be honest with them. All they really want is to be maintained in the good opinion they have of themselves.

Albert Camus

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back.

Blaise Pascal

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

David Hume

There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals.

Francis Bacon

Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.

Unknown

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

William Blake

I started looking for "friendship" quotes after hearing Peter Boyles this morning on the way to work. He said something similar to the last quote on the list and so I had to search for reference. The last quote is the closest I could find.

I finished another book last night. It's easy to zip through a book when I've got time to kill at soccer practices and when the books are small. The book of choice this time was Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott. I've read other Scott books, including Something Maybe and.....Living Dead Girl (warning: not for the faint of heart!!!!!!!)

Sarah and Brianna have been friends since Kindergarten. Brianna "saved and picked" Sarah to be friends with her. Sarah is very loyal to the point of her own heartbreak. Brianna has it tough because her family life even though she is described as every high school boy's wet dream and seems to have it all otherwise. Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years, but Brianna ends up being his girlfriend. A kiss happens, Brianna's dad abandons her, and Sarah must navigate through the pitfalls of friendship and all those unwritten rules. Who needs whom more? Just how did Ryan and Brianna end up together if Ryan really intended to be with Sarah? Is it possible to feel sorry for Brianna, but also want to slap her? And, more.........

Sure books provide entertainment and distraction for me, but I also think a lot about them during and after--not enough to the extent or worthiness of a bookclub-type discussion or English paper dissection. This book was no different.

There are a lot of unwritten rules for friendship and life in general. I see it even today with my girls, especially. C is a popular chick with a lot of friends. She seems to be well-liked and doesn't want for activity. We don't talk a lot about her life, but some of the things she's said about here friends came to mind while reading this book. S's friendships, too.

S made fast friends with a classmate soon after the start of the school year at her new school thank goodness! They get along well, but S is definitely second fiddle in their relationship in so many respects. She gets bossed a lot and gives in. She also isn't friends with anyone else really so she doesn't dare upset the relationship. C knows that she has to be careful to navigate her friendships, also. She carefully picks her activiites, her wardrobe, boys, etc. She follows the unwritten rules of not liking other friend's romantic interests even if old, unrequited, simple crushes, or friend's brothers.

I guess this is what life is really all about. I wouldn't know.