2023-04-20-On Friendship

Session

Opening

“Friendship” is where the real world – the extended world – begins.

Lesson

Family is where relationships are learned – mother to child, father to child, sibling to sibling – but friendship is where that initial education is brought forth and, shall we say, unleashed on the world. And friendship, in a way, becomes the world, the world of the participants (I’m tempted to say ‘celebrants’) of the living temple that is Friendship.

A friend is that mirror to us in which we see ourselves, find ourselves, groom ourselves to be worthy of further friendships, relationships that blossom into veritable beacons of light when observed from on high. Friendships are a connecting cord that, though slacking or knotting from time to time, eventually establish a single unit, a bond that, while seemingly of two (or more), is actually but one grand thing: many headed, many hearted, but still one, a separate system all its own on the planet. Thus, when friendships expand, drawing more and more members to be included under the rubric of ‘Friendship’, the world takes a step closer to its ultimate goal of all-inclusion – a family, a new family of friends.

Friendship is a canvas on which the mural of mankind is painted. The aberration of war is precisely that – an aberration – for it is, perversely, fought by friends, bands of friends on either side of the fight, warring with other bands of friends who happen to find themselves on the opposing side. But both sides of the conflict are made up of friends drawn together by the bonds of friendship. And yet never thinking that their counterparts are left in the same position - struggling to make sense of a territorial misconception of friendship. If a little imagination could just be applied…

So friendship is the very basis of our understanding of the world. It allows us to gauge the adhesive qualities of the life we’ve been thrown into, the path we walk, the coherence we depend on. “If you and I can be as close as this, as trusting, as devoted as I to you and you to me, then perhaps this is merely an aspect, a beautiful aspect, a grand mirroring, of a fluid and ever-dependable dynamic within and without life itself; that maybe it’s true Spring will come again next year, that rain and sun really do engender the flower, and that that same sun will continue to rise morning after morning; and that if I continue to explore (by being faithful to my friend) Friendship, that I shall discover what the phenomenon – the living phenomenon - of friendship is teaching me. Is here to teach me. And will everlastingly accompany me as I quest ever deeper outward – extending my hand – and inward – extending my faith – in the glorious search of discovery of Friendship.”

Closing

Say this and mean it, live it, and all shall be well.