Friendship between two:

Can there be anything like friendship between two people of the opposite sex? Many people think that this is impossible but I think that platonic relationship between a man and a woman is very healthy. You must agree with me that this is a new relationship phenomenon featuring in only this generation. The previous generations believed that opposite-sex friendships were potential to many marriages. Family and marriage therapists believe that the easiest opposite-sex friendships to maintain are the friendships which were established long before someone got married. Such relationships are not threatening since you had them before you were married.

There is no consensus how to develop friendship. It depends on the circumstances, lifestyle, and the length of the relationship. It is especially challenging in the male-female relations. A rapport between two people is influenced by certain conditions that determine its success or failure. The process is largely based on behaviors, reactions, and coincidences.

Friendship is a very valuable gift in life. It accompanies love, but it also can occur by itself. The important thing is the ability to separate the two categories of feelings, a challenging task in cases when two opposite genders are involved. Sometimes, the distinction may be outright impossible.

The entire process from the first meeting, though getting to know one another, and developing new emotions is lengthy. It's only up to the two individuals on what level their bonding stops.

The first meeting requires only a handshake; later long spontaneous conversations make time fly by in a wink without serious plans for the future. Subsequent more advanced levels of bonding allow for sharing deeper thoughts and emotions. This is when a male and a female start to express understanding, acceptance, admiration, affirmation, encouragement, and finally the need for intimacy. In some cases, friendship turns into jealousy, which indicates that the feeling was in fact love not friendship. Love and friendship are two beautiful feelings, as is the combination of thereof on one condition that one feeling does not destroy the other one. Intimate relationships born after long friendships are susceptible to more types of problems not obvious beforehand. A friend does not criticize for drunken outings, or scold for being late, or forbid to go out with friends for a beer or football game. In intimate relationships these become problems and are grounds for anger and dissatisfaction. Friendship teases love for love’s restrictions; and love complains that friendship stays away from it. As a result both feelings suffer.

Male-female friendships are very difficult. I don't claim that they are impossible, but they are rare. Such friendships are hard to keep unselfish and anything can happen...

Chances of friendships between a man and a woman would be better if friendship followed love not the opposite way. When the passionate love ends, the partners would still have very close friendship to hang onto. It is impossible to forget shared experiences especially when two people know about themselves everything. As it is said, friendship is one soul in two bodies.

It is also said that friendship between a man and a woman is like a walk along a very narrow land separating the bay of knowing one from the ocean of love. So, a high tide tends to flood the piece of land.