Is He a Good Friend?

When to judge your friends

When do I know someone is a good friend?

Let’s use inversion thinking - finding the answer by finding what is not the answer.

When do we not know if someone is a good friend? What’s a bad time to make judgement? Probably when it’s easy to be a good friend. When it’s easy, even a bad friend can seem good.

“Anyone can hold the helm, when the sea is calm”

(The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, 358)

When you judge people is important. People ought to get the benefit of the doubt, but be weary of trusting someone before they’ve been tested by rough seas.

Most people are good when life is easy. A person’s true colors show when things stop going smoothly. This can be a dramatic life changing event or even a night out on the town gone wrong.

If I take a wrong turn and get us lost in Appalachia, what do you do?

If our mutual friend wrongs me, what do you do?

Life is much happier when you’re quick to give trust. You invite so much more goodness into your days with less worry. But that quick trust needs to be balanced with awareness.

Be aware of the fact that friends are met in good times and made in hard times. A fun person isn’t always a good friend. A generous person isn’t always a good friend.

“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm” (Publius Syrus)

Question of The Day

How do you decide who your good friends are?

Your (pretty good?) Friend,

Noah BigNerd Sochaczevski