A different word….

I think we need some different words for “friend”.

A long time ago, a friend of mine, who I’ve since grown distant from, told me that the ancient Greeks had several words for love, to describe the different qualities of love that you have for someone. You love your significant other in one way, your grandmother in another, and yourself in yet another. There are actually 8 in total, and this includes the love that you have for yourself.

I think we need the same type of delineation for friends and/or friendship.

For example. There are friends that you have that you hang out with occasionally, share some details about your life with. There are friends that you have, say at work or at school, where you don’t really hang out, but you share the commonality of being at work or school together, and you hang out there, maybe commiserate a bit and share certain snippets of your life with them. Then, you have your close friends, who know a hell of a lot more than any of your other friends about you, your past, your current life. And then, you have that very close person, or maybe two people, who know everything and would do anything for you. They would give you money, no questions asked and with no expectation of repayment. They would watch (and you would trust them to watch) your kids or your pets. They would help you dispose of a body if you needed it, and then go out for drinks after like it was any other random Tuesday. Your true ride or die.

The only word we have in English for any of these people is “friend”, but some of them just barely meet the criteria, and others go above and beyond by lightyears. Why is it, then that we do not differentiate?