er temporarily can be entertaining, while living together for a long time can only be boring due to the lack of common interest and understanding. how can we communicate with each other without understanding? parents have the duty to support the children who are not yet economically independent, and children have the responsibility to provide for the elderly parents who are lack of economic abilities to support themselves. except these two kinds of duties which we must fulfill, other kinds of love become conventional formalities such as paying visit to the sick or the dead and giving presents to the newly-born etc..
no love among relatives has become a normal phenomenon which needn't to be fussed about. what's worse is when love is contaminated by money. sooner or later we will get hurt. the sooner we get out of this net of love, the more we can preserve beautiful memories.
we are not living in vacuum, and the society is formed of various kinds of people. as long as we want to live, study, or work, we have to contact, communicate and cooperate with others. those who enjoy common interests, mutual understanding, common undertakings and common benefits become friends.
some friends are called fair-weather friends, because they are together just for entertaining themselves by eating, drinking, and gossiping. once there's nothing to eat and drink, their friendship is finished. some are spiritual friends who share common ambitions, pursuits and education. “they enjoy talking and laughing with the great talents and never make friends with the good-for-nothings”. the best examples would be yu boya and zhong ziqi of the ancient times who are famous not only for their lofty music but mainly for their lofty characters and mutual understanding and appreciation. they cared very little about material wealth, so their friendship is known as “gentlemen's friendship as pure as water”. the third type of friendship belong to those who show their utter devotion to each other. they are ready not only to share weal and woe but also to die for each other, like the three brothers liu, guan and zhang in the novel romance of the three kingdoms. . we all wish to have this kind of friendship, but it's of great difficulty for the ordinary people to be as devoted as they were.
fraternal love or friendship is wide-ranged and flexible. generally speaking, everyone is our friend, just as chairman mao says “our friends are all over the world”. but transcend age, sex, nationality, state and economic conditions. to them the most important is common benefit, common interest and understanding. friendship is formed during the course of studying, working and fighting. the battle companions who have survived many hazards usually enjoy long-lasting friendship.