Friendship: A Goose that Lays the Golden Egg
Is friendship something that always benefits? That's what Seneca, a Roman philosopher, believes. He said, "Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures." To him, friendship was like a goose that lays the golden egg; it benefits just by having it. On the other hand, he described love as something that could hurt a person's feeling. I strongly agree with Seneca. I believe having a friend is always beneficial; it can't hurt, in normal circumstances. However, I think that when loving someone, one can be hurt quite easily. There are a few reasons why I think friendship is always beneficial and love isn't.
For starters, if there's a friend, one can share the happiness and grief with the friends to help boost or reduce it. There's a saying that goes, 'Shared joy is double joy and shared sorrow is half-sorrow.' Thus, a friend can make you more happy in joyful situations, and help you cope with traumas, such as divorce, serious illness, job loss or the death of a loved one. With a friend, you know there's someone by your side to share the joy or sorrow in your life. Just by knowing that would mean a lot, especially when you're in a bad situation. I felt this firsthand a few weeks ago, when I got a call from my friend that his father has passed away. Upon hearing this, me and a few other friends stopped what we were doing and went to the a funeral hall. When we first saw him, we could tell he was shocked and overwhelmed with grief. We stayed by his side that night, and comforted him, trying to make him feel better. Thankfully, the next day, he seemed to have overcome the shock a little bit. After spending a night there, I found out firsthand what friendship can do. It can definitely help someone lost in grief, by sharing it.
Additionally, friendship can make you healthy. When we are with friends, we usually laugh a lot. It is well known that laughter is extremely beneficial. Also, friendship not only improve your mood and self-esteem, it also reduces stress and lowers your risk for terminal illness. It is reported that friendship can increase your sense of belonging and purpose, boost your happiness, reduce stress, and improve your self-worth. This emotional health perks we receive from our friends can also impact our physical health. According to Harvard Health Publications, social connections help relieve harmful levels of stress. Friends can also strengthen our immune systems and motivate us to recover from a debilitating injury. Thus, just by being with friends, you can expect lots of positive effects on our health.
As you can see from the two examples stated above, 'friendship always benefits', like Seneca said. In contrast to friendship, Seneca said 'love sometimes injures.' I agree with Seneca on this one, too. That's because with love, it hurts more than anything else when it ends. Loving someone is different from friendship. It is a feeling more intense, so the wound would be more deep and therefore harder to heal. Just by taking a look at recently broken up couples will tell you love is something that injures both people's feelings harshly. If you watch the news, there are sometimes news of broken up couples going to the extreme. It is obvious that love can hurt someone's feeling in a way friendship can't.
In conclusion, I agree with Seneca's statement, "Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures." The reason why I agree with the "Friendship always benefits," part is because you can share the happiness and grief with the friends to help boost or reduce it. Also, having a friend will make you more healthy. With the "love sometimes injures." part, I agree because when love ends, it will leave a wound extremely deep, thus it will hurt more than anything else.
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