Choices

Have you ever thought about how much your friends mean to you? To what lengths would you go for your friends? Would you do anything? Really?

Sacrifice takes on new meaning when it means doing something for a person whom you care about. We hate to see anyone suffer, but to see it happen to someone you love is to suffer yourself. What would you do to ease their suffering? Would you take on their burden? Could you be completely selfless?

I ask the questions because I don't know the answers. No one can say with any degree of certainty what they would and wouldn't do given particular situations. And there are those situations that cannot be undone. Parents pray to take the cancer that infects their child's body. Friends curse the misfortune that took their friend's life instead of theirs.

Then there are the situations that I believe friends should not help with. Unless you are independently wealthy, I would not recommend getting your friends out of debt, buying them a new car, or loaning them money. If you have money to lose and it doesn't matter to you, then go ahead. For the rest of us, if you value your friendship at all, don't do it. It never ends well. Plus, you are not doing your friend a favor. Part of making mistakes is learning from the consequences. If your friends do not learn this lesson, then they are doomed to repeat their mistakes.

But what about those other cases....your friend's house burns down and they have no where to live and no worldly possessions? Would you let them move into your spare room and have half of your clothes? Or the friend who may never be able to have children? Do you offer to carry her child? Or the friend who is dangerously close to a bomb about to explode? Do you sacrifice your life in order to protect theirs? Here is hoping that these are choices that you are never asked to make.