Aristotle noted that “man is a social animal.” This implies that we need each other, need social interaction and, yes, friendships. My son-in-law’s parents, in their 80’s, were evacuated from their home in Boca Raton, Florida several days ago and the family was unable to reach them. Then today they called their landline and found them quite well, happy and watching television and windows open for the gentle breeze. They had dodged the bullet Irma and actually enjoyed their stay in a gymnasium of a nearby middle school. Their they met neighbors for the first time, made new friends, exchanged phone numbers, etc. Essentially they were brought into a new social structure enabling budding friendships.
Maria Paplova writes about friendship in her Brainpickings web site. It brought to mind the new friendships we’ve found with kindred souls here at Skyline. So many times I’ve heard, “It’s not the place (though it’s very nice), it’s the people!
Defining friendship can be done in so many ways. From Paplova, “We can count on so few people to go that hard way with us,” Adrienne Rich wrote in her exquisite meditation on the art of honorable human relationships. While it is hard enough to inoculate the integrity of the word “friend” against today’s epidemic misuse and overuse, it can be even harder to calibrate our expectations of those who have earned the benediction of the title — the chosen few we have admitted into the innermost chambers of the heart and entrusted with going that hard way with us. “Ponder for a long time whether you shall admit a given person to your friendship,” Seneca counseled in contemplating true and false friendship, “but when you have decided to admit him, welcome him with all your heart and soul.” Two millennia later, the question of whom to welcome and to what extent remains one of the most delicate discernments with which life tasks us.” Click here to read the full article.