WHO'S YOUR JONATHAN?

"In 1961, near the end of his life, baseball legend Ty Cobb confessed, if I had the chance to live my life over, I do things a little different.... I'd have more friends. He had plenty of acquaintances, hangers on, and Washington friends (defined as someone who stabs you in the front). But Ty Cobb died without a Jonathan."

Leonard Sweet is the most quote-able guy I know and I've been sharing some quotes from his book, "11 Indispensable Relationships You Can't Be Without". Chapter Two describes the best thing anybody can have....a Jonathan....a true friend.

"There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself, 

an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly." 

                                                                   Antisthenes the Cynic

A Jonathan believes in you when no one else does. 

A Jonathan is loyal even when you make it hard to be loyal. 

A Jonathan gives and gives and wants no payment. 

A Jonathan is the first to call in good times or in bad. 

A Jonathan walks with you in all seasons, like the winter of your discontent, when a miasma of gloom settles like a fog around your soul and nothing can be done until it lifts. 

A Jonathan keeps you in check when you want what you can't have. 

A Jonathan grants you grace when you take him or her for granted. 

A Jonathan defends your life's meaning when your life has no meaning.

But most of all, a Jonathan sacrifices himself for you, even knowing, as the original Jonathan knew, that the more your song rises, the more his or her own song fades into the background. A Jonathan is willing to lead a life of decreasing significance, or as John the Baptist put it so eloquently about his younger cousin Jesus, "He must become greater, I must become less." The greatest act of true friendship in history? Jesus death: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends."

If you find that Jonathan, that true friend, that anam cara, that sticks-closer-than-a-brother, that what's-in-it-for-you-elevator-down-lay-down-their-life-for-you-person, than you'll have something that feels warm, like a familiar song. Carole King wrote these lyrics but James Taylor sang them best: "All you have to do is call, and I'll be there. You've got a friend."

Everybody needs a Jonathan. Everybody.