I started looking up
the meaning of “best friend” mainly because we live in an era where nobody
seems to remember the meaning of it anymore. Nowadays, people are more
interested in sharing their lives, their success, their most inner fears or
sorrow with total strangers on social media, but find themselves incapable of
sharing a single honest moment with another person who is actually in their
lives. I don’t know about you, but I feel more and more alone in this world
where people are no longer willing to communicate at a personal level, instead
they choose to hide behind a screen and act human, when in fact, they are
becoming more and more like robots.
Being aware of this worrying fact I recently found myself
tempted to let my guard down and open up to someone I just met, in a sad
attempt of finding new real friends, maybe even best friends; how sad that we
have to let our guard down to make friends...I thought that being honest, helpful,
truthful and warm would insure the success of a friendship, but little did I
know, the world doesn’t need bff’s anymore (best friends forever). I am writing this story with a mixture of
sadness and amusement towards my own person for being so gullible and so eager
to share things that make me who I am with a person who sadly has proven to be
arrogant, deceitful, selfish and immature. Besides the disappointment,
I am saddened to see that people don’t know how to be best friends for
each other anymore and even acting it seems impossible for most.
So, here
are a few definitions I found online for the meaning of “best friends”:
“An especially close and trusted friend”, as opposed to “worst
enemy”.
“Someone who
never gives up on you, someone who won't let you down, someone who listens to
you”.
“One's closest
and dearest friend”.
“Someone
who forgives you”.
“Someone
who accepts you for who you are, your perfections and imperfections”.
Thinking about
my personal experience and reading these few sentences that highlight one of
the most wonderful human interaction, I can’t help but conclude that while very
few people have it in themselves to be someone’s best friend, dogs are
especially created for the job. Comparing the situation mentioned above with
the experience I’ve had with dogs over the years, I have to ask myself, when
did a dog lick my hand, but bit me from behind as soon as I turned around? When
did a dog acted happy to see me, but then first time I needed help they just left
me there? And finally, when do dogs ever make us feel stupid, redundant and
small? The answer is a simple one: never.
Looking
up on the internet about why dogs have been tamed, I found an article written
by Professor Robert Wayne from University of California, saying that the taming
of dogs started almost 20 000 years ago when wolves were getting closer to
people (because of the animal carcasses left behind) and ended up “staying and
evolving together”. So, from early ages, the man and the “dog” became very
close and, weather for specific means such as keeping guard or hunting, or for
companionship, they stayed together. I
could go on talking about their loyalty and pure hearts, but these things have
been very much discussed over time and it is a known fact that the dog is a man’s
best friend; that is not the issue. But when
did man stop being the same for dogs? Best friends, as few as they are nowadays
are called that way because they are there when we need them, they listen and
don’t judge, they forgive us no matter what. Wouldn’t it be absolutely shocking
if your best friend would, all of a sudden, not only betray you, but send you
to death or condemn you to a life of decay and torture? Isn’t that concept
simply insane?
Further
more, I ask you to please try and answer these simple questions:
Would your best friend make you
feel invisible and unheard?
Would your best friend leave you for dead in the middle of nowhere with no means of survival?
Would your best friend cast you into a world that is meant to sacrifice you because it has no use for you?
Would your best friend forget all about you and left
you alone?
Would your best friend hurt you in a way that left
you broken inside and out?
Would you best friend leave you hopeless without the
strength of ever believing again?
Now ask yourself this: would your worst enemy do all
that to you?
When did people lost
their ability to love unconditionally and stop being worthy of such love? And
is this new world we are trying so hard to create worth sacrificing such values
as empathy, compassion, selflessness, honesty, values that seem the very
essence of what makes us human? What have dogs done to us that is so wrong as
to forget they were created to be our bffs (best friends forever)? The answer
is a simple one: nothing. The saddest
part is, dogs will always be our best friends, no matter how much we cast them
aside; they will trust those who betray them, they will lick the hand of that
who has hurt them and they will stay by our side when the whole world has
turned its back on us, because that is the true meaning of being one’s “best
friend”.
The message of this article should be a reminder of what can
make us happy and where to find the truest best friends we will ever going to
have, but also a call for help to put a stop to this infamous betrayal. Please
help our best friends by saving them of being born into a world that has no
regard for them and has become their enemy!
Choose to be part of the solution,
support free spay/neuter projects throughout Romania by donating to Romania Animal Rescue using these
details:
USA paypal : romaniadogs@sbcglobal.net;
UK paypal: donations@animalsni.uk
Please
check out our website: http://www.romaniaanimalrescue.org/
Thank you!
