Dollars can't buy friendship, but they can destroy it

A dollar cannot buy everything in life, but the damage it can cause is too great.
Especially if he is the cause of the breakup of the friendship.

Every Friday, while I'm having a coffee break, I look at the topics that galenkp comes up with for the weekly engagement.
So this Friday, with a cup of coffee, I read this:
Have you ever lost a friend?

I pick up the phone and call my friend, if he is able to meet after work, to drink coffee or beer, depending on how much time he has and if he has any commitments later.
He has obligations with his wife, but he can spare two hours and see each other. He is the strongest and best friend. Don't even ask me why.

This is my friend from elementary school, we have known each other for a long time, almost 45 years.

One of the few who have been there all my life.
Wondering why I called him as soon as I saw the thread?
Well, because he is one of the rare, sincere and true friends in my entire life.
And such friendships need to be nurtured, even over a beer in a nearby pub.
Sometimes it happens that we don't hear or see each other for several months, but when we call each other, there is always time to talk or even see each other.
Just like yesterday. In 10 minutes we made an agreement and met in the evening in a nearby tavern.

I will (like him) make the maximum effort, so that this friendship lives on.
We are not going to let it die out like it has with some other friends in my life or his.

As young people, sociable and eager to have fun, we quickly made friends.
Some of them met at work, some at drunken parties. and some in pain, sadness and problems.
And many have been broken up, and all traces of them have been lost.
It's like I've never been friends with some people. Only sometimes, like a flash, the memory of some of them passes through my memory.
I've had a lot of friendships made over the last 20 years that were probably "friendships of interest". It's quite normal, because when you have a common interest or the same field of interest with someone, it's easy to make a friendship.
But the question is, how sincere is that friendship then.

In a comment from Friday, I wrote that my true friend would not ask me for some unrealistic favor and that if he did, that someone would not be a sincere friend.

And so, at my age, I can say that the circle of sincere friends is reduced to a minimum.
There are several of us in that circle, and we are all from elementary school, when we were innocent and uncorrupted and when those friendships were real, boys, but for life.

I could talk now about how I felt when I lost friends and broke up the friendships I had, but it was all so long ago that it would have any emotion now.
But the story of my friend, with whom I sat for two hours on Friday in a nearby pub, is very fresh, and therefore very emotional.

A year ago, that friend of mine started a business with his friend (who is also an acquaintance of mine). Cultivation of edible flowers.
They invested some initial capital and went into production.
They put the fucking dollar bills.
They found an acquaintance who would provide them with logistics and deliver the produced flowers to restaurants.
Everything went smoothly until more money appeared on the table. Damned $, like this one at the beginning, which is responsible for many sufferings and wars, also clouded the relationship between the two.
Due to the question of a different distribution of earnings, my friend had a fight with his friend and they ended their business cooperation, and a little later they reduced their friendship to a minimum.
How did my friend feel about the breakup? Although he tries to look as strong as a rock, he was crumbling inside.
He missed his friend, but he didn't want to reconcile, because he was absolutely right.
He told me yesterday, while we were sitting in a bar, that a few nights ago he dreamed of his "former" friend and that business partner, a logistician, trying to cheat him again. He was sad because it happened because of money. But he couldn't get over it, because he didn't accept that his friend was undermining him in the business they started together.
It was clear to me, as soon as he told me about his dream, that he misses the friendship he lost and that what happened was very difficult for him...

And me?
In my young days, while I still had high hopes and trust in all the people I would be friends with, I experienced multiple betrayals, minor or major, which led to the breaking of "friendships", and only sometimes they hit me so hard that I cried because of them.
Sometimes I break friendships too, when I received treatment from "friends" that I didn't deserve.
I helped many people, spent my energy and time, but when I asked for help, the same ones I hired, and I received the answer "I can't. I don't have time, I'm sorry", they immediately went to the block (what today's youth would say).

Losing a friend, but finding peace for myself, is something I've decided I can live with.
Let friendships be broken, if only we are all alive and well.
Because I wished a long and happy life to all my "former" friends, individuals who betrayed my trust, who tried not to deceive me, because of whom I suffered a material and financial loss. I wished that they would no longer be my friends, because I understood that friendship is not a one-way street and that it consists of taking but also giving.

And I lost a friend without my will or his will.
There is no need for me to describe to you how I felt once in my life, when I truly, but forever, lost a friend, who died at a pedestrian crossing.
An honest and true friend, who was ready to put his hand in the fire for me and with whom I had mutual respect, trust and support, like a friend with whom I had a beer.

That friendship was broken violently, it was not up to us to protect and nurture it.
That's why I will cherish and cherish the remaining friendships I have, like with my friend on Friday night.
And you know what we agreed on?
For some next weekend, let's invite the rest of the friends from our team, in the same place where the two of us were sitting.
It will be a nice moment, and if I have something interesting, some anecdote or some reflection from that sighting that follows, I will write on another occasion in #weekendexperiences.

For now, I greet you and say, take care and cherish your friendships, because if you allow trust, respect or honesty to be broken, you risk being friendless forever.