Friends are There

Be careful little ears what you hear; when flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near.
-Casting Crowns


There are people who believe that friends are the people who support you no matter what.

Then there's some people who get into figuring out what the definition of 'support you' is.
Agreeing with you no matter what?
Figuring that if you're on a path that they can see is destructive, to let you go with it, because it makes you happy?
Because you'll learn something from it and be better for it?
Because it's just easier to let you break when you hit rock bottom?
Because they know that they'll be able to be there for you when you hit rock bottom, and they don't know how to be there for you when you're like this?

There's someone who said that friends are the people who know the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you've forgotten the words.

I've got both types of friends. There are a number of people who are of the mindset that whatever I want to do is better than any advice they could offer, and they seem to feel that there's nothing that gives them the right to caution me.

Rogue's the best example of the other kind. He's been there when I get mad at him for cautioning me. I may very well lash out at him, and he's strong enough to stand there and take it without budging on his position. He knows me well, he knows what matters to me. And he's called me a number of times on being on the verge of something stupid.

It'd probably drive me crazy if all of my friends did that, but it'd be a good kind of crazy. Having Rogue as a friend (and Mom for a mother, for that matter), often means that I have to be able to support my position on why I'm doing something, and it tends to make me consider things much more before I do them. "If Rogue finds out about this (and he will, because I don't care for hiding matters from my brother), what's my rationale for why I did it?"

Knuter's influence is similar, but usually has less to do with ethics and more to do with the category of Things That Could Put Me In The Emergency Room.