JORGE RODRIGUES SIMAO

Although we may not realize it at the time, a chief event in our lives is the day in which we first encounter one of our best friends. If by chance you don't precisely know why you need great friends, let's get you started: After you work either hard or smart to be successful in life, it's important to enjoy your success. Celebrations by yourself, you may have noticed, aren't much fun they actually tend to be on the quiet side. Even if you have a dog or cat, sharing good news with it isn't quite the same as sharing good news with a great friend.

All things considered, happiness is one of the cheapest things in the world when we secure a good part of it through friendship.

Lenny Dee told an Utne Reader reporter, "I have always thought you could invest your energies in making money or making friends. And they achieve much the same ends - security, new experiences, personal options, travel, and so forth. I have always found it more fulfilling to make friends."

Money contributes to our lives, without doubt, but it's just that friendship contributes a lot more.

At this point it is worth asking: Can true friends be bought? Not with money -luckily so for the happy poor and unfortunately for the lonely rich.

"A friend you have to buy," declared George D. Prentice, "won't be worth what you pay for him."

Even so, friends have to be bought.

To be sure, friendship carries a price tag - a big one at that.

Hey, it should - it is one of life's greatest joys!

To find, win, and keep great friends, you must continually be paying a price.

Although many people are not wild about having to continually pay a price for anything, that's just the way it is.

The Universe has declared that this is how the friendship game is played.

The price you have to pay for friendship varies in substance and form.

Most important, you buy great friendship with intangible substance.

You buy great friendship with the inspiration, advice, joy, support, and good feelings that friends expect from you.

The major friendship maxim is that the best friends that money can buy will never even come dose in quality to the friends that your character, integrity, and compassion will get you.

No doubt friendship is not always easy - you may have to put in a lot of time and effort for it to work.

To have a true friend is one of the highest prizes of life.

To be a true friend in return is one of the most formidable tasks in life.

In this regard, always remember that friendship is a verb and not a noun.

Put another way, friendship is an active element that requires constant input for it to develop, survive, and thrive.

Whatever you do, don't expect something for nothing.

Friendship doesn't work that way.

At times, particularly when growing new friendships, you may even have to put more into them than you get out. But the rewards of paying the price to develop great friends can bring prizes of which you have never dreamt.

Perhaps you have noticed that attention and kindness from a true friend will warm your heart a lot more when you are sick than receiving 1,000 Euros from a distant or crabby relative.

To be sure, your best support during troubled times will always be a dear friend.

According to an old Greek proverb, "It is better in times of need to have a friend rather than money."

In fact, a great friend is someone with whom you can have fun even when neither of you has any money.

At this point it is worth remembering that friendship isn't important only when you are in dire need.

Without great friends, a journey to an exotic foreign land can be boring; a million Euros will not have much use; Christmas Day will be lousy; the most important of your accomplishments may appear worthless; and life, itself, will not even come dose to being as precious and fulfilling.