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Friendship – an Endless Supply

Frank Deaver Editorials

• Section Home • How to Make Dreams Real • Rotary Shares – the Holiday Season • Cleaning Out the Attic • Big Toes and Thumbs • Fellowship: A Rotary Benefit • Handwriting on the Wall • Rotary is Opportunity • From Diversity to Unity • Prepared to Serve • Perfect Attendance: A Worthy Goal • Friendship – an Endless Supply • Creating Rotary Awareness • ROTARIANS CARE; ROTARIANS SHARE • A Time of New Beginnings • THE EXTENDED FAMILY OF ROTARY • OUR FOUNDATION – WHAT A BARGAIN! • Benefits of Attendance • The Club Bulletin - Rotary Information • A Century of Service... • The Genius of GSE • GRATITUDE IS AN ATTITUDE • Happy Birthday, Rotary • "Dear President..." • The Role of Humor in Fellowship • The Road to Literacy • ROTARY IN RUSSIA • Our Magazine - Appreciate it, Use it • I'm a Rotarian, "I am Someone" • Sharing Rotary Successes • Rotary Needs You(th) • ACHIEVING GREATER VOCATIONAL SERVICE • Demonstrating Vocational Service •
Friendship – an Endless Supply
By Frank Deaver
Rotary Club of Tuscaloosa, Alabama USA



"There are two kinds of friends: those we have met, and those we have not met." Nowhere is this generalization more true than in Rotary friendship. Centennial RI President Glenn Estess said in Rotary he feels "a sense of belonging." Even visiting Rotary clubs in other countries, he added, "I feel as though I'm among friends."

A recent story in Rotarian magazine began with the following: "There aren't very many places in the world where you can show up unannounced, knowing no one, and be the guest of honor. But that's often the case when you make up a Rotary club meeting on the road. And with more than 32,000 clubs worldwide, you'll rarely find yourself stranded."

In a world of instant coffee and tea, instant soup and oatmeal, Rotarians have access to the ultimate instant—instant friendship. And in a world in which people tend to treat each other with some distance, if not suspicion, Rotarians who meet Rotarians instantly break down those barriers. Rotary offers instant friendship and instant fellowship that spans languages and cultures worldwide.

Instant Rotary friendship brings together individuals who otherwise would continue to be strangers. And through new-found friendships, additional opportunities for fellowship and service are opened. Rotary friendship is truly a valuable commodity, although it can neither be bought nor sold. It has no price, but its value is immeasurable.

In the rural south of the Caribbean island of Trinidad, near the little town of La Brea, is a lake—of sorts—that is proudly described by locals as one of the wonders of the world. Pitch Lake is a black mass of imperceptibly churning natural asphalt, slowly bubbling upward from a sandstone fault line 250 feet below the surface. People walk on the air-hardened black surface, but heavy objects slowly sink from sight. Sometimes they reappear months, even years, later—as the black semi-solid slowly swirls upward.

The material is regularly hauled away to be used throughout the island country as asphalt paving material and mastic for roofing. A Rotarian told visitors, "No matter how much you take out, come back next day and you can't miss it. There's apparently a perpetual supply."

Like the pitch in Pitch Lake, friendship is similarly in perpetual supply, an endless human commodity. Enlarging one's circle of friendship does not diminish the potential supply, for friendship can be constantly replenished. Through Rotary we have boundless opportunities to both give and receive friendship. Of the 1.2 million Rotarians worldwide, the vast majority are "friends we have not met," but they are Rotary friends nonetheless.
RGHF Committee Editorial Writer Frank Deaver,    23 August 2007

The contents of this website, our electronic features and newsletters have been researched, collected, compiled, and written by Rotarians.

RGHF Mission: As an effort to serve others, RGHF accumulates and preserves the complete history, values and philosophy of the Rotary movement, as well as encourages others to do the same at every level of the Rotary movement, and publishes those histories, values and philosophies on the internet, as well as other forms of media as expedient. 17 March 2003, amended 20 December 2007, Rotary Global History Fellowship Board of Directors.

This fellowship is not an agency of, or controlled by, Rotary International, but is affiliated with individual Rotary districts, clubs, other Rotary organizations and enjoys the support of Rotarians, clubs, districts, and zones world-wide. The views and opinions expressed on this website are not necessarily the collective views and opinions of Rotary International or all Rotarians. Rotary International is not responsible for any content and accepts no liability therefore. © 2000-2008 RGHF (Rotary Global History Fellowship)