If friendship has to be justified, then it isn’t what it claims to be!

By Stanley Collymore

My life-long experiences have simultaneously 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 that over the years following her successful graduation has genuinely become a very longstanding and close, trusted friend; is mentioned in it, and to whom this poem is also with very best wishes specifically dedicated.