Friendship

It happened last winter that a tiny little bird enjoyed the fall time a little bit too much and didn't start its journey south early enough. It started a little late in the winter and tried to fly out, and it just froze and fell down. A cow was passing that way and it dropped a heap of dung. The dung fell right over the bird and covered it. The warmth of the dung slowly defrosted the bird and he started feeling good and started tweeting happily. A cat was going that way. It heard the tweet, looked around, and saw that the tweet was coming from inside the dung. He pushed the dung off, pulled the bird out of the dung and ate him up.

The moral of the story is, whoever heaps you up in shit need not necessarily be your enemy. Whoever pulls you out of shit need not necessarily be your friend. And above all, when you are in a heap of shit, learn to keep your mouth shut.

If you are a friend to someone, you don't have to nag them with what is wrong with them; that is not the point. But at the same time, you must have the courage to be unpopular with people. In trying to be popular with people, in trying to maintain some kind of pleasantness around you, see how much unpleasantness you have buried within you. If you bury unpleasantness, if you sow seeds of unpleasantness into the soil, you will reap fruits of unpleasantness. If you really have a friend, you must have the courage to be unpopular with him or her, and still be loving and okay with him. Right now, your friendships are always made on agreements, likes and dislikes. But even if you are apples and oranges, you can still be good friends. A true friend is someone who has the courage to tell you what shit you are, and still be loving and nice to you - that is friendship.