Principles of Friendship

So I got to thinking about the word friendship….. Simplistic term for some, very analytical and deep in theory for others…. I began to think of past friendships and current friendships. Truth be told I am well aware of the fact that friends come and go and the fact that some individuals are placed in your life at certain times for certain purposes and certain purposes only. One of my best friends, the yang to yin we’ll call him, told me that there are restrictions and labels so to speak for certain individuals we call-- friend. He also told me that there comes a time when you decipher and identify rather, there friends or associates.
So in my thinking I immediately had another idea, that sometimes who may be your friends could actually be your foe.. I am getting ahead of myself with this blog so let me slow down and flow in sequence… He then went on to say some friends are just to have fun with, yeah, the fun buddy, the good time buddy so to speak. Then you have that friend that listens, you then have that one that just talk and never listens.. Make sure with whatever problem or obstacle going on in your life be well-aware of who to talk to and who to listen to. But as we analyzed this and that we both discussed that hey no matter what, we all are not perfect and all friends have their quirks, but a person that truly is a friend be there in good and the bad. Its amazing that some individuals can be friends forever and never have an argument, never having fallen out and be although times passes we get older, mature and experience the joys and sorrows of life, that person is still there.. You then have some instances where some individuals could have truly grown apart which can happen to the best of friends.. And,, well sometimes you cross paths again and start a new and some remain estranged….. Speaking from experience, I recently had a an estranged friendship that has been rescued so to speak, .. Well I made a vow not to pick up where we left off but to begin fresh and anew. Since then, its been about six months and the journey hasn’t been easy but hasn’t been difficult either, we learn more about each other every time we speak and are in the same environment. All of the pain in the past we have equally shared our feelings and forgiven each other but truth is we never forget. Which brings me to another friendship that comes to mind that has currently been in existence for about uh.. I’ll round it off and say,, ummm, seven years I think… I accept a person flaws and all, but there comes a time when material things and the attention factor of that person is just mind-boggling and confusing. Supportiveness is a strong factor of friendship, to me anyway. And well I feel it’s a factor that is of importance, if they claim to be a friend…. Some use the word friend, loosely, and some individuals abuse that privilege to even be called friend…. My best friend and I came up with a list of adjectives that describe the qualities of good friend, a true friend and they are:
Un-biases
Supportive
Un-competitive
Of course these are just a few to name…Multiple lists can be developed and I’ll be adding them as I go along.. But my question is what are the principles in a friendship? What values are necessary of a true friend? And how much of oneself can one give to be a friend? Are there limits? Are their rules?