When you have a group of wine-and-meat friends, you have fair-weather friends. A fair-weather friend is one who is always with you when times are good but disappears when you are in difficulty. There are many fair-weather friends around but bosom friends are few and far in between in life.
When fair-weather friends desert a friend who is in distress, a very common platitude that will be said of these wine-and-meat friends is “they have changed’. Have they really changed when they left that friend at the time when help was needed? No, they have not changed. The misfortune of their friend only magnifies and manifests the true nature of these fair-weather friends. They have shown their true colours at the most opportune moment.
Hence, one may know a person’s face but not his heart. Fame, wealth and social status do not change a person’s innate nature. Sometimes a seemingly humble and gentle person may become arrogant and hot-tempered when high position and great wealth are at hand. However, this is not true for one who was born innately good. Under all circumstances, be it in riches or in poverty, one’s humility and kindness remain. Suffice it to say for one to have a few bosom friends as true friends are hard to come by. Fair-weather friends in abundance are not a blessing. As the saying goes:
Friends are like melons; shall I tell you why? To find one good you must a hundred try. -- Claude Mermet
6 April 2010
"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” Walter Winchell
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