
Is allowing your friends walk all over you a sign of weakness? Many would agree without much hesitation. However, a deeper insight of this "weakness" will reveal otherwise.
Lets break it down and take a look at the recipe for friends to be exploiting you.
You'll need:
i) incredible amount of patience
ii) astounding capacity of generosity
iii) dumbfounding volume of magnanimousness
Needless to say, each of these requisites are virtues that one can only wish for unless bestowed upon by the Lord(s) above. So since it is a gift from the Almighty(s), how can we name it a weakness? It takes a lot of one to hate, but it takes even more of one to forgive. We have all been consumed by the guts of hatred, tortured by the acids of vengeance until our wrongs are righted. We've all longed to taste the bitter-sweetness of revenge when we think that we've been let down. But how many times have we really forgiven, or to even forget? Very seldom I'd say.
Many of us, including yours truly(sometimes only), are too shrewd to be taken advantage of in such a manner. The dearth of such virtues within have caused us to view them as weaknesses and flaws. Not everyone is made to excel, people are born with imperfections so there are always things to learn for everyone. Just because one is kind-hearted enough to be exploited doesn't make him/her any less of a person or any less beautiful. And they are wonderful people because they have the capacity to forgive and forget, to live and let live. Even in TV dramas, those who have the capacity to forgive, are characters whom we look up too and support. It is precisely because we lack of such magnanimousness that we admire people who do.
Kudos to those who have been silently "servicing" their friends. They are people of incredible mental strength and they are jewels amongst us that are waiting to be uncovered.
I found one, and no doubt I will polish her till she shines through all the ugly debris that others have been piling onto her over these years. There is still a long way before she learns how to shine on her own and appreciate the glow that she is radiating despite the dirt. But we are well on the way, though not there yet, but closer everyday.
You were right when you thought that we will be different.