Friends…

“Let’s talk about friends!” The opening line paraphrased in countless songs and self-help literature publications, romance novels, and tongue-in-cheek pest control commercials. This is the topic of the day.

We all… okay that is presumptive. Many of us, myself included loosely call everyone that we associate with on a regular basis as our friends. But what are they really? The question here, is how do you define a friend? Many of us refer to people as friends who are more accurately defined as acquaintances.

The answers can vary all over the board. And - there is a comment section if you would like to chime in on this. Please feel free to. For some people, judging by the preponderance of Internet me me’s on social media, one has to be willing to walk to the ends of the earth during an active zombie apocalypse to deliver a fresh set of underwear to you in order to obtain that status. For others, the guy that popped in to the bar six months ago that you chatted with for five minutes while waiting for your drink to be poured was your bestie for the longest. I think the answer is somewhere in the middle.

For me, I would say that a friend is someone that you do things with or communicate with outside of whatever venue it is that you normally associate with them. For example, are your coworkers friends? Some have been. If we are hanging out after hours or on weekends doing things outside of offsite company functions, then yes. Otherwise, they are coworkers. Another example. Gym buddies. I know dozens of people at the gym, although admittedly not a large number by name, and fewer by last name. I would say that with very few exceptions, everyone at the gym is an acquaintance.

And of course, that begs the question. What is even an acquaintance? Well we know what an acquaintance is, but what isn’t it? The bagger at the grocery store you see semi regularly but don’t exchange words other than at checkout - does he or she even rate that? Certainly iffy.

What say you?