On Friendship

An Aristotle Quote on Friendship

I have been thinking quite a bit about friendship recently, not in the abstract philosophical sense, despite the Aristotle quote above, but in a concrete reflection on a particular friend, to whom I wrote the following email:

I've been thinking about friendship, lately, and I thought of something you said at the lunch during our celebration of the fortieth anniversary of our graduation, namely, that our friendship was unusual because we didn't have much in common. I had to think about that a bit, but you were right.

Except that we had one central thing in common: we were smart. Or you were. I just pretended to be.

Anyway, being smart (or passing as such in my case), we found that we could enjoy interesting conversations together, and I remember hours-long conversations on various things. We had opinions and expressed them.

We also worked together, hauling hay or doing other farm work, and otherwise helping each other, which once again gave us time to talk, and we took long walks on your folks' farm, which again gave time for talking.

Our friendship was therefore not so odd. More to the point is why we've stayed friends. I think that we've remained friends because you have the overriding virtue of loyalty. Added to that is your quality of helpfulness. When I think about your helpfulness, I realize that you were always willing to help.

You have many other good qualities, of course, many of which find usefulness in your work, and I admire you for them and for your success in your chosen field.

Anyway, that's about it, and I wanted to say it because I'd kept putting it off, kicking the can down the road, and I realized that if I didn't ever get around to telling you, I might end up kicking the bucket instead of the can, without having ever gotten around to telling you.

Thanks for being a loyal friend (and for being helpful) . . .

By the way, I'm not about to kick the bucket anytime soon - I just thought I should say some things about our friendship because one never knows . . .

Having crossed my sixtieth birthday this year - on May 14, 2017 - I find my thoughts turning to how much time remains, to which I don't know the answer, of course, except for knowing the truism that the time remaining will not be enough.