A friend in need is a friend indeed/in deed. Agree? Examples from real life - or here?

Rule of acquisition number 202: A friend in need is a customer in the making.

A friend in need with weed is a friend indeed.

I agree. When people need things, they can be very manipulative. Feigning friendliness is an effective method for gaining favors.

a friend has a problem, i help!

Can I borrow a couple thousand, friend?

If a friend of mine is in need and I’m able to help them out in some way, then I will of course.

I got your back, buddy.

Sure, @AstroChuck.

Couple thousand… what exactly?

I have no faith in this sentiment. It’s a nice ideal but from my experience people act from self interest and sometimes it overlaps one’s own.

@SeventhSense Everybody acts in self interest. But one person may value another so much that it would be perceived as an act of self interest to keep the other from suffering misfortune, either for emotional reasons, such as a family member, or for practical reasons, like a team mate, or the guys next to you on the battlefield.

When my mother was gravely sick my relatively new friend offered to take all my kids so I could rush to her side (she was 500 km away). She kept them for nearly a week. I knew she was a life long before that, but her unwavering help confirmed it.

I’ve had other frenemies who had no problems receiving help from me but turned their backs on me when I needed help or understanding.

When the chips are down you find out who your real friends are.

I don’t know about that. For me, a friend is a friend whether or not they fall into need. To give a person kudos and feel more trusting of them to call them my friend based on their show of humility or need… I’m not that trusting.

I’m a needy guy. If someone fulfilled a major need of mine, I would work to be as close to that person as possible. That means fulfilling needs of theirs.

I think that saying is used to condemn shallow, one-sided relationships. However, there are deeper relationships where one party benefits more than the other in the immediate, but the other benefits from a sense of purpose gained by helping the needier counterpart.

Maybe the saying began as a wise observation, and still is, but I’ve heard it used to promote stigma towards accepting a needy friend into life. But altruism is the way of life, literally. In healthy relationships, it isn’t about debts and loans between those involved.

Yes, especially when the ‘help’ goes both ways. I had a friend who was moving and needed help transporting her books to the used book buyer, and cleaning out her rented storage space. The storage space was full of yarn and other craft items, which I got to take home with me.

Her books filled my entire van, for the first trip, and the craft items also filled the entire van. We shared a wonderful meal together in a little specialty restaurant we both love. It was a very satisfying exchange.

It means that a friend in your time of need is a true friend. A true friend is someone who’s there for you and doesn’t run out on you when you’re in trouble. Nothing more complicated than that.

@zophu
You said it pretty clearly in a reading between your lines and quite clearly in your first line. As one who has needs, the motivation can spring from a desire to assure a steady stream in response for fear of its demise. What comes first the desire or the response? I have little need for affirmation and rarely court it but many are devastated if alone. Although as a means of honor I totally agree with being there for a friend when they are in need. I think it’s rare to find someone who will honestly express a need and someone who will selflessly fulfill it for nothing more than an ideal. I do believe that exists though. I’m not that cynical. I still believe in love too.

edit; ok wait i’m a liar. I love attention and sometimes secretly wallow in adulation

@SeventhSense Reciprocation doesn’t have to be a simple, unbeautiful thing. I mean, symbiosis in just the insect world, for example, is pretty beautiful. Symbiosis in the human world is awesome. It’s just when the reciprocated needs are reduced to money, or shelter, or social status, or sex that things become simple and sometimes ugly.