“Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than government. It is almost the equal of family. Never forget that. If you had built up a wall of friendships you wouldn’t have to ask me to help.”
The Godfather, Chapter 1, Page 38, Paragraph 3, Sentences 14 – 19
Friendship is everything. Has anyone ever revealed this to you? Did you have a teacher, a friend, a friend among friends, a friend above all others who gave you this teaching? Do you know this?
Turn the question inside out. If you had to tell someone else what everything is; which is to say what is the single most important part of everything; what equality would you propose? All the love songs tell us that love is everything. If you are a member of a religion, any religion, your religion is itself the ultimate answer to this question. But, what if you had to bring your head out of the heavens and your heart out of eternity and answer the question pragmatically, about real life, about life and death, about success and failure, about creating heaven or hell on earth in the here and now? What then? What would your answer be? What is everything…to you?
The great Don, with his magical powers to balance irritation and patience, love and disapproval, teaches his beloved godson, Johnny. It is over Johnny’s abandonment of Nino, his boyhood chum and youthful partner in conquests. Johnny now suffers the same fate as Nino, and we can see that Johnny, in abandoning Nino, in failing to live by the law of friendship, has brought all his own suffering down upon himself.
Johnny listens. Johnny learns.
Do you? Elevate your mind, your heart, your soul, your life plan, your most critical decisions. The great Don is sharing his philosophy of life with you. Pay heed. Absorb. Like Johnny, abandon all your resistance and surrender. The Don has spoken.
Friendship is everything. Surrender. Friendship is everything. You must master the art. Friendship is everything. Rise up, win the Don’s blessing, be his child.
Simply obey.
[originally posted February 5, 2012 at my Facebook]
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