Gratitude for Friends – Sunday, November 21, 1982
It seems woefully inadequate to set aside only one day out of the entire year for Thanksgiving. We are all recipients of countless blessings, enough to merit the designation of every day as a day of gratitude. The mere fact that we exist in a world of exquisite beauty, a world inhabited by others with whom to share our awareness is sufficient to evoke continuous and sincere appreciation.
Perhaps not enough has been said of these others with whom we share this world, these friends, these of close association—relatives, husbands, wives, acquaintances.
The word friend has several synonyms: comrade, chum, confidant, companion. A friend is one with whom we are safe. A friend has seen beyond the shallow facade of our protective mask to the depths of our griefs and fears, to the heights of our joys and ambitions—and loves us still.
To accumulate wealth is noteworthy; to succeed at business is something; but he who has a friend has done extremely well for himself. With this achievement he has doubled his joy while dividing his sorrow. He who has a friend has at once gained both fame and honor.
It was the illustrious Napoleon who claimed that he neither made nor needed friends.
It was this same victorious monarch who spent the last years of his life in miserable solitude as a friendless outcast, alone with his arrogance and greed. He had conquered much of the civilized world but died without a single friend to mourn his passing.
On the other hand, when asked to divulge the secret of his long and beautiful life, Charles Kingsley replied, “I had a friend.”1
In truth, even one good friend can tilt the scales of life towards happiness, regardless of whatever other acquisitions we may or may not have gained. When we are insecure or afraid, we cannot turn to wealth for comfort. It is not fame who will visit us in our maturity to discuss politics and grandchildren. And our possessions will feel no loss at our demise, but our friends will.
May we understand the value of a friend by making friends and by being a friend. Let us keep in constant repair those friendships we now enjoy. And at this Thanksgiving season, let us express gratitude for those who bear the noble name of friend.
1 Kingsley, Charles, Familiar Quotations, Little, Brown and Co., Boston 1938, p. 524
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November 21, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,779