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FOUNDER Jack Selway CARL CARDEY MATTS INGEMANSON DICK MCKAY PDG AMU SHAH
FLORENCE HUI FRANK DEAVER JOE KAGLE BARHIN ALTINOK PDG DENS SHAO
VIJAY MAKHIJA PRID JOHN EBERHARD BASIL LEWIS PDG DON MURPHY TOM SHANAHAN
PDG GERI APPEL PDG DAVE EWING EDWARD LOLLIS PDG JOHN ÖRTENGREN PDG KARI TALLBERG
O. GREG BARLOW JOSE FERNANDEZ-MESA FRANK LONGORIA PDG FRED OTTO CALUM THOMSON
PDG EDDIE BLENDER PRID TED GIFFORD CARL LOVEDAY MIKE RAULIN TIM TUCKER
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CARLOS GARCIA CALZADA VIMAL HEMANI MALEK MAHMASSANI PDG RON SEKKEL RICHARDS P. LYON
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PDG INGE ANDERSSON PDG JAMES ANGUS  Deceased RAY MACFARLANE PAUL MCLAIN

Frank Deaver Rotary Editorials

 
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