S.W.O.T. and friends

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Today as part of the staff retreat we had a "class" or facilitated discussion regarding this topic. It is a very easy way to identify what you have going for you as well as what's not quite working out. This is something that I feel like needs to be applied to my own life. 

I started doing this online and was several paragraphs in when I felt like what I was writing may not be something that would be interesting to the world or more honestly something that I feel comfortable sharing. And that seems to be the crux of my dilemma in someways that I am not open and deep with those around me. 

Something this exercise brought to my attention was the fact that making friends is a difficult operation. Something not to be taken lightly or something that is not easy to maintain. With the nomadic pattern that life is going in it is very rare for me to stay in one place long enough to make genuine friends... at the start o the paragraph I made a conscious choice that this was not going to turn into a lamentation. And in regards to this I cant say that I regret where I am in life. However I also see the side of me that could use a sprucing up and areas that could be utilized more. 

Thinking along these lines I have to ask what a friend really is. There are many cliched thoughts about who or what a friend should be. Looking up Friend found me this definition. Note that in the definition proper this word is treated in a very casual sense. However if we go into the history of the word there is a very deep and profound root. I would not say that everyone I call a friend my lover... that in our society would be seen as something that does not compute. Casual sex and the fact that sex in general has been marginalized to the point that it is stripped of its deeper meaning seems to give rise to the word friend having now a very shallow meaning as well. So what we really mean when we say we have friends is that we have acquaintances that we have known for a long time. 

So coming full circle once again, we seem to have this gap in our language and in our understanding of our relationship with the people around us. Can't call them friends because we don't know them that well but we also know them more that a mere acquaintance. What do we call the people around us and what does it take to get to that point with them? I don't know if I have a good answer for that question. I don't even know if I have the ability to answer the question given my comprehension of the world. So what do we surround our selves with everyday and what do we call them?