Topic：2011.5.28
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: We can know more about a person from the types of friends he/she has. (Friends)
It is widely accepted that things of a kind attracts each other and learning about one’s friends can be informative about one’s own features. This is basically true if we limit our knowledge about other people to some rather superficial aspects since in a narrow sense, one’s friends can mirror one’s own character. However, only by making friends with and be with this person can we truly understand him/her.
One’s friends can , in some way, provide information about the social status, hobbies and some other exterior features of one. It hardly happens that a rank-and-file member in a society is able to enter the elite class and make friends with the most prominent figures in the world. And theoretical physicists are not likely to have a great deal of friends who are muscular and constantly expose themselves to risks of getting themselves hurt in sports course. The crowd surrounding a physicist must be curious students and intelligent professors. Moreover, from whether the circle of one is large or small we may safely draw some conclusions about whether one is outgoing or with an inward personality.
Despite the information we may get from one’s friends, we still know little about this person due the scarcity of the information. Since one shows only one aspect in front of one’s friends, what the friends is familiar with is merely a small fraction of one. And still less can be got from these friends. Another question is whether the man before his/her friends can represent the genuine essence of him/her. The answer is, with a high chance, negative, considering that interests of each other is complicatedly twisted and one must act so as to maximize his/her profit before anyone including his/her friends thus one’s real nature hidden in the dark, which cast doubts on any conclusions we have on the person concerned.
The only way also the best way to understand someone else is to make friends with him or her. The nature of anyone is his/her behavior and thoughts rather than the interpretation of these behavior and thoughts by one’s friends. Building a friendship with someone else requires tolerance, patience and understanding and it is in this process that we obtain tolerance, patience and understanding to each other. 作者: 水果的夏天 时间: 2012-7-24 19:31:45
