I was recently asked of the 3 words which is the most important, Friendship, Love, or Truth? While there was no right or wrong answer in the question, it poses a philosophical question. Can you have Friendship without Love or Truth? Can you have Love without Truth or Friendship? I share these thoughts of mine, and know that these are just my opinion, yours may differ from mine and that is okay. For as the questioner said there were no right or wrong answers, just opinions.
First, I must state that my answer was and still is Truth. For I believe that without truth nothing else matters.
Truth to me is the foundation of Friendship, as defined in the dictionary – Truth (Noun) is “sincerity in action, character, and utterance”. Without sincerity in our actions there can be no friendship, for friendship without Sincerity is simply an acquaintance, a business arrangement. Someone that we keep in our company because it is convenient, they fill a void, we use them for personal benefits of the friendship, or worse yet we keep them around to amuse us. A friendship based on false pretense is not a true friendship.
Truth is also the foundation for Love. Love is defined as an unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: such as brotherly concern for others. I ask you; how can one have a brotherly concern for others without truth in that relationship. How can I or you have a brotherly concern for a fellow human if there is no truth in mine or your actions. True love means, to me, that I have a genuine concern about your wellbeing.
So as for me, Truth is the foundation to all my actions. Without truth you can’t have true friendship or love. A true friendship means that I can be honest with you and that you can be honest with me. Sometimes, that honesty will hurt. However, because it comes from the love we have for each other our friendship will survive. When we make mistakes in our relationship, as we will, the true love we have for each other will get us through it.
This is why I believe that Truth is the foundation for both Friendship and Love. Let me further say that a Friendship without love is an empty Friendship. For a Friendship without caring and compassion is not a friendship. It is merely two ships passing in the darkest of night on the open sea. Yes, you may have some contact, however, you tend to be eternally grateful once you have separated and are no longer in each other’s presents. This is why I believe that both Friendship and Love deserve an equal billing as second most important.
Think of these three words as a tree. While “Truth” is the tree itself, “Love” are the roots of the tree and “Friendship” are the branches that are shared with the world. Without any of these – Truth, Love and Friendship – the world would be a sad place.
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