Friendships Are Important

A strong friendship can be an important source of support. Your spouse can be your friend, but recognize this is a different relationship. Hang on to your strong friendships.

40 years, a 40 year old friendship means that that person knows you very well and they’re always on your side. You know, that’s the great thing about a really long time friendship, you know that that person values you for whoever you are, whatever you are, they’ve seen you go up, they’ve seen you go down, they’ve seen you in bad situations and they’ve seen you in good situations. And you’ve been able to help that friend out as much as they’ve been able to help you out, I hope. So I find that the 40 year old friendships, and they are all women, of course, I find that my deepest friendships are with other women, that has made a tremendous difference in my life. And I think that, you can’t know when you’re going to meet that 40 year old friend, but when you do, I think it’s just tremendously valuable, it’s the best thing that has happened to me in terms of trying to get through some of the difficult personal things in my life. Now, a friend, this does not exclude your spouse, your spouse can be your friend, and should be your friend, really, but that always has a different dimension to it, you know, there’s always a much more subjective element to it. Whereas I find that long-time friends are people who know you very well, but who can also be objective, I think, up to a point, and that just makes all the difference in the world. So lots of acquaintances, few friends, but really hang onto those friends. That’s my advice on that.