“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.”
― Alfred Tennyson
Distance doesn’t mean much in true friendship. It’s already the 21st century. And it’s getting harder to draw a line between geographic barriers, thanks to the Internet. Even though we grew apart geographically and breathed different cultures and beliefs, our roots can always be tangled. Embrace that. Every single day, embrace that. Silent, unwritten, undeniable – the truest kind of friendship is a code written in our hearts.
Even though we grew apart, we can always understand each other through words. And we can always find each other, know each other, and exchange our thoughts, beliefs, and stories. That’s the beauty of this world. And that’s how this world is designed to be, I believe. Even though we have witnessed scenes of brutality, bloodshed, and unnecessary loss of life over the course of history, we must move towards creating a new world that values basic human rights, democracy, freedom of speech, and kindness.
My own experience of having interacted with those who are outside of my norm has been amazing and truly eye-opening. On one hand, we have fundamental disagreements and plenty of differences. But disagreement is healthy, and we must accept the fact that two different people always have two slightly yet fundamentally different perspectives on life.
Resisting this truth and pretending as if we see everything eye-to-eye only worsen the friendship, and that sort of friendship probably wouldn’t last long. Since we’re human beings, we can understand each other through conversation and can grow together by finding the willingness to view those challenges as crucial opportunities to learn new perspectives, which sometimes could be a wild eye-opener.
When it comes to confronting our fundamental disagreements and differences, it’s always better to deal with the truth than dealing with comfort lies. Once we leap through the challenges, our friendship will continue for many years to come.
Even though I’ve mentioned differences among those who grew apart geographically and breathed different cultures and beliefs, we can also see how similar we all are. Despite our differences in perspectives and beliefs, ultimately what we want is quite similar to each other: peace, a sense of community, simple pleasures of joy, compassion, and a sense of accomplishment.
Not all of our friends are necessarily living next door to us. Despite our geographical, demographic, and religious differences, they could be neighbors in our hearts, instead.
And I want you to remember this. Having a hundred friends is not a miracle. A miracle is having a friend who will stand by your side when hundreds have walked away.
In the future, when you meet someone who has completely different perspectives and beliefs than yours and still wants to be your friend, just simply reply “Why not?”.
We all are citizens of the world. We all are crews of Spaceship Earth. And we all are neighbors.
Cheers to our friendship without borders.
