WEEDING OUT YOUR FRIENDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19762, 13 April 1926, Page 14

WEEDING OUT YOUR FRIENDS

“What’s happened to the Smiths? You don’t ever see anything of them now, do you?” said I to some friends of mine. “ Have you quarrelled or anything?” “ Oh, no.” said my two friends in chorus. “ We’ve not quarrelled; we just decided to drop each other.” “You decided to what?” I said in surprice. “ Did yoif have a conference, then, and conic to that amazing conclusion V” They both laughed. “ Well, not exactly. But it would have sounded rather cheeky to say we decided to drop them, because we thought we bored them just as much as they bored us, and we were sure that they wanted to

drop us too. You see, we realised suddenly wlnal appalling wasie of time it is to keep on knowing people you do not really like. It simply means you haven’t ; any time for your real friends. After all, the f iths were all right when we were kids, but we knew mother and father more or less founded the friend- ; ship. 1\ ow we’re grown up we’ve grown ■ oa„ of them and the kindest and wisest thing is to face facts and say farewell.” “ It all sounds rather cut and dried,” I ventured timidly. “It isn’t really,” they said. And if you think a little you’ll probably find you’ve done the same thing unconsciously, if not consciously.” I thought and found out that 1 had' It may sound rather a hard or even an unkind doctrine, yet I do feel that it is no good getting sentimental about people and things for whom and for which we have no real sentiment. Honest sentiment is good, but humbug is horrid. After all, those whh lead busy lives are bound to carry out all kinds of processes of elimination. Otherwise we should still have Dick Turpins riding to York and wives trimming lamps. These things are charming enough in theory and were right enough in their own appointed period, but to-day, sad though it may seem, time is set faster, has grown more precious, or there is more for us to do Time being more precious, can we ufiord to waste it? Only with the right people and doing the right things. It .is delightful sometimes to talk a lot of nonsense and laugh with a lot of people. But, given the wrong companionship, this would definitely be a waste of time. Therefore, in view of all such circumstances, I do think it is up to us to be sensible and not sentimental about many of the so-called friendships of the world. There is not enough time for the people we love—have not the poets said so so how can there be time for people we do not care about? It is not an unkind doctrine, for the bore is more often than not bored, and he whom we wish to drop invariably wishes to drop us' And if we have limited time and limited means, money and time spent on and with people we do not care about means money and time not spent on and with those we do not care about. What a pity that is when you are longing to give a beautiful present or have a happy evening! And, after all, is it not better to cease being friends with people than continue complainingly ? It is so usual to bear such remarks as “Oh ! dear, an evening with Jim bores me stiff” or “Oh! dear, I’ve pot to go to tea with Mabel—-hope I shall be able to keep awake.” Personally, I think it is better to have the courage to break away from such uncongenial acquaintanceships than to continue them in an unkindly spirit.— Answers.