Friendships vs. Relationships

Have you ever taken the time to think about what actually differentiates your friendships from what you might call your relationships?

For interactions which can in many ways be so alike, the differences can be quite dramatic.  There are things that can occur between friends -- conflicts, different interests or directions, and so on -- which while tolerated with friends, wind up being deal-breakers in a relationship.

Really, there can be so many similarities, though, where is the line drawn?

Thinking about it for a bit, accountability and common purpose pop to the forefront.

While you don't necessarily share every little thing you're doing or planning with your friends, this level of communication is often expected in a relationship.  There's generally no need to tell your friends about a big planned purchase, a trip, or any such thing.  Talking about such things with friends can be quite normal, but there's usually an expectation to do so in a relationship of some maturity.

Beyond this sort of thing (and intimacy, of course), though, it's amazing how similar relationships and friendships can be, yet how what we'd tolerate in a friendship (often without thinking twice about it) can be intolerable for many in a relationship.

One interesting aspect of relationships and friendships that popped to mind a while ago relates most easily to poly-minded people...with this sort of relationship model, being involved emotionally with people in a way that allows each interaction to reach its own natural level, there's not really any need to have a concrete end to things.

Such relationships can simply continue to evolve to whatever suits those people at a given point in time...now your partners, oh, but now there's been a shift, and so friendship is more sensible.  It can continue on, evolving to whatever suits the moment, without ever having to tread the "we're breaking up" waters.

Granted, this sort of approach pretty much demands a level of maturity from the people involved, or it simply won't work that way.  (This popped to mind, of course, with the realization that "hey, things really didn't need to end this way...they could have simply been dynamic and evolved to what suited the moment", so it's a biased view...)

Annnnd, for the most part, then there's the real world.