What Is a Friend

What is a friend? I will tell you. It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can be naked with him. He seems to ask from you to put on nothing, only to be what you are. He does not want you to be better or worse. When you are with him, you feel like as a prisoner feels who as been declared innocent. You do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, so long as it is genuinely you. He untherstands those contradictions in your nature that lead others to misjudge you. Whit him you breath freely. You can avow your little vanties and envies and hates and vicious sparks, your meannesses and absurdities and, in opening them up to him, they are lost dissolved on the white ocean of his loyalty. He untherstands. You do not have to be careful. You can abuse him, neglect him, tolerate him. Best of all, you can keep still with him. It makes no matter. He likes you. He is like fire that purges to the bone. He untherstands. He untherstands. You can weep with him, sin with him, laugh with him, pray with him. Through it all - and untherneath - he sees, knows and loves you. A friend? What is a friend? Yust one, I repeat, with whom you dare to be yourself.