Can men and women really JUST be friends? - addendum

After reading some of your comments and further discussion, I feel the need to add an addendum to the post.

I do think that men and women can be just friends, but the key to it being sucessful is communication. Isn't that the case with most things in life?

Upon further reflection, I believe that my male friend (mentioned in the original post) was in all actuality attracted to me, but we really were just friends. I think we were only able to do so because he was mature enough to put his attraction aside and I didn't use it for personal gain or ego gratification. And I think if you asked him today, he would say that it was a very close and fulfilling friendship for both of us.

I guess we both needed each other's friendship at the time enough to get past it. And we communicated very well with one another. There wasn't any confusion, and he didn't have any misconceptions that he could "win me over" or anything. Nor did I take advantage of his attraction to me and use it for my gain. That wasn't the point, and it wasn't an ongoing issue that needed to be dealt with. He was simply my best friend, and I loved him for that.

I realized that I didn't really address the issue of whether or not men and women could be "just friends" if they are both attracted to one another.

As was so astutely pointed out to me, it also can be done with good communication. But both people have to acknowledge the mutual attraction and discuss why it isn't wise to act on it.

Then I think it can work.