For the past few weeks, I’ve asked several people, “Who is your best friend?”

It’s amazing how many people said they have a lot.

Evidently, they don’t know what a friend is.

Approximately 50 years ago, while drinking at Roussel’s Restaurant in LaPlace with the late Frank Baiamonte, he asked me how many friends I had.

I, immediately, said that I had plenty. He said that if a man has five friends, he is a rich man.

Today, I can say that I have at least three, because over the years, I now understand what a friend is.

Many years ago I read the following:

“Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait to hear the answer. Friends knock before they enter, not after they leave. A friend is a person who can step on your toes without messing up your shine. Friends care. They can laugh with you and cry with you and not be embarrassed to do either one. Friends are honestly interested in everything about you, and you can trust them with the most private information in the world. Friends want you to be closer to Christ than to them. Friends are those who speak to you when others won’t. A friend is one who knows all your faults, but likes you because of your heart.

Don’t ask yourself how many friends you have. Ask yourself how many people you are befriending.

The best vitamin for making friends is B1.”

The Bible gives advice to maintaining a friendship. Proverbs 18:24 reads: “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

If you have any questions or comments, please write Harold Keller at Get High on Life, P.O. Drawer U, Reserve, LA 70084, call 985-652-8477 or email hkeller@comcast.net.