Friendship

Just last year my daughter managed to trace down a dear family friend that we lost touch with for over 15 years. Through facebook, of course.

And today, I "bumped" into a friend on facebook. Didn't know he has come thousands of kilometres away from where we worked together to the same city I now live in.

Facebook is a very interesting phenomenon. It has helped me to find friends, some long lost, some I would not expect to see or hear from ever again. In all this, it has never failed to bring me joy. It is a marvelous thing to catch up with long lost friends.

I guess this is because in many ways friendship is such beautiful thing. Friendship seems to multiply the joy of good time, and portion out the burden of sorrow in bad. It gives us strength in tough time, and courage in the face of death. Many war time soldiers would recount that their heroic acts were not inspired by patriotism or philosophical conviction, but to stick it out for their mates.

I enjoy friendship greatly. Yet sadly there are people whom we just can't be great friends with. I often wonder why. They are great people, nice people. But somehow somewhere something is not right. It is not even their or our doing.

I grew up in a small town where more than 80% of the people there were Malays. So, not surprisingly, many of my good friends were Malays. Though I have not met almost all of them for over 20 years, I still count some of them as my best friends.

That contrasts greatly with many of the Malay friends I know later. They are not any less nice. In fact, they are probably nicer and kinder than many of my good friends. Yet there seems to be a barrier somewhere, somehow.

They have done me no wrong; in fact they have done me a lot of good.

I have done them no wrong, too; at least not that I can recall.

The 64 000 dollars question is, why? I often wonder.

Is it envy? That richer people qualifies for financial privileges just on the basis of race, and we being poorer has to pay for this privilege with our tax?

Is it anger? That kids with poorer results are given better position in universities than our kids who do better at school?

Is it jealousy? That people who are not performing as well as us are promoted to be our bosses?

Is it dissatisfaction? That our tax money is being squandered to destroy meritocracy?

Is it fear? That somehow we have believe in a religion that has been battered and slandered even in high school text books, and the next target would be ourselves, the believers?

Is it sorrow? That the friendship I treasure is being poisoned by racist policies and corrupt government?

Or is it me? That I fail to see through the mist of misinformation and subtle psychological subversion and succumb to the poison served up by corrupt politicians looking to consolidate power by whipping up racial strife?

I can only pray that I will see the beauty of God's image in every one of his children and love them as Jesus called us to.