Who Are Your Friends?

One of my favorite radio talk show hosts is Dennis Prager. He is highly intelligent, provocative, and yet retains a wry, but benign, sense of humor. He isn't afraid to tackle life's big questions, such as the nature of God, the meaning of the Bible, and relationships between men and women. During my commute, I'll often eagerly tune into his show. Other days, there's so much noise in my head from my clinical sessions and any writing projects I'm doing that I crave silence.

Today, Dennis was hosting his "Happiness Hour", devoted to exploring various facets of contentment and positivity in life. His specific topic today was friendship and how and why friendships end. I was fascinated by his callers and their stories. What most captivated me were the stories of decades-long friendships in which eventually one friend encouraged the other to take a course of action that violated that person's moral compass, for example, to actually take a test for one's child so that he wouldn't fail a college course, or to abandon one's family and "just go be happy".

There is a saying that "Friends want the best for each other and bring out the best in each other." Several of the calls I heard on the show today seemed to fly in the face of that conventional wisdom. I'd like to encourage you, if faced with a friendship dilemma, to consider whether your friend has your best and truest interests at heart, or has some other agenda.