If friendship has to be justified, then it isn’t what it claims to be!
By Stanley Collymore
My life-long experiences have both astutely taught
and obviously confirmed my long held belief that
true and enduring friendship has nothing whatsoever
concretely to do with whom you’ve known from
birth, the influential and powerful families
that you may supposedly have either
been or crucially are still societally connected to,
or the ludicrous and delusional assumptions
vaingloriously held by some that your
ethnic and national origins, your
defined racial status or socio–
educational and financial
credentials might, you
think, appropriately
bestow on you;
but profoundly and unarguably
so, instead, have everything
to do with the innermost
characteristics as well
as the indissoluable
moral and innate
qualities which
hail you, the
Person, as
a worthy
human
being.
And most specifically the manner in which
you are then able and intently willing
to spontaneously, naturally and
rather positively relate these
propitious characteristics to and evidently
successfully deal with the intrinsic
goodwill in other people, and mainly
those who previously, like me,
were total strangers to you.
Nobody has ever lost
anything valuable,
or is ever likely
to, simply by
straightforwardly probing for
rational answers. And you
Monika are absolutely
a classic exemplar
of this faultless
philosophy!
© Stanley V. Collymore
13 January 2020.
Author’s Remarks:
The generative seeds of genuine friendship, when they’re uninhibitedly allowed to naturally and encouragingly germinate, will always assuredly I know blossom into a magnificent and splendidly appropriate forest of goodwill socially, locally, nationally and globally. And it’s my deep-seated and honest belief that more of this approach isn’t only necessary but should of the utmost urgency be avidly encouraged wherever possible.
As such, this poem was inspired by Monika: a former postgraduate student of mine who subsequently over the years following her graduation has become a longstanding and close friend of mine; is mentioned in it, and to whom this poem is also with very best wishes specifically dedicated.
