Friendship constitutes one of the greatest joys in life. Having a person to cherish, trust and share life's ups and downs with is certainly a wonderful thing, and two spunky characters from CBS's crime drama hit "Criminal Minds" wonderfully encapsulate what it means to have a platonic friendship.
Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan and Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia work for the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. Their job is to profile and find out information about suspects, respectively, and in the course of their work, they see truly horrific cases. Viewers of the show see exactly what Morgan and Garcia see, and in a show with such a grim subject manner, a bit of comic relief is always refreshing.
The two share a charming and wildly entertaining friendship. Morgan refers to Garcia as "Baby Girl," Garcia calls Morgan quirky names such as a "statuesque god of sculpted chocolate wonder" and their banter is anything but professional. Despite their flirtation, the two have never had anything further than a close friendship.
Platonic friendships are when two people have a friendship without a sexual element or desire toward the other. These friendships, which may or may not be devoid of flirtation, are beautiful things. They allow two people to be comfortable around one another and enjoy their company without an expectation outside of friendship.
When Morgan and Garcia engage with one another, it is obvious there is a lot of love there. The love, however, is not eros, which is an erotic love, it is plilia, which is a brotherly type of love without any sexual element. Though they do flirt, the two do so in a jovial way as they understand the difference between friendly flirtation and coming onto one another.
There is enormous value in retaining a friendship and keeping it just that, a friendship. When you allow yourself to befriend another person with no expectation other than friendship, you are able to hold onto and cherish a beautiful thing. Friendships save and heal and when in doubt, think about the horror Morgan and Garcia see in "Criminal Minds" and trust that despite any trials friendship is real.
