Reconnecting in a Culture of Disconnect
Despite all the talk of relationship, today’s culture undermines real friendships at their root. True friendship remains possible if you begin by discovering what it is and requires.
Making Time and Space for Friendship
We often lack the contexts that enable friendship, and our practices from communication to recreation cripple our relationships. Learning a forgotten wisdom about friendship empowers you to forge it.
Overcoming Loneliness
The lack of meaningful relationships leaves us isolated and discouraged, like so many around us. True friendship is always possible if you make it a priority.
What can I do?
STEP 1: Start by reading Our Pressing Need for Friendship, which outlines why it’s so important to prioritize friendship in our lives.
STEP 3: Watch this video discussion on the value and art of cultivating deep conversations and authentic friendship as the path for authentic human flourishing.
STEP 4: Evaluate how you act to former friends. See Aristotle’s advice in Living with Former Friends.
STEP 5: See below for featured Wednesday Quotes that address the theme of friendship and how to forge strong friendships today.
Featured Posts:
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Recent Posts:
The Suffering of Children
“Yet even in these nobility shines through, when a man bears with resignation many great misfortunes, not through insensibility to pain but through nobility and greatness of soul.” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics My youngest son is doing very well today. Two weeks ago...
Living an Examined Life
"...the unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates in The Apology by Plato These words of Socrates are notoriously provocative. Perhaps they should provoke us. One implication of course is that an examined life is indeed worth living. But just what is an examined...
The Stress of Relating to Our Spouse, or Anyone Else of the Other Sex
“Certainly the same benefits are not received by each from the other, nor should they be sought.” “One must, too, acquire some experience of the other person and become familiar with him, and that is very hard.” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics All joking aside, relating...
Stress #1: The Lack of Presence in Our Life
"It is not good that man should be alone." Genesis I do not think this is controversial. Essential to a happy and satisfied life is living in the presence of those we love. Consistently. Perhaps this is most obvious in younger children. They simply want to be together...
Seeking Memory Eternal
“May his memory be eternal.” "Vichnaya Pamyat." (in Ukrainian) Traditional Byzantine Prayer for the Dead It seems that in this prayer for the dead we are really at the heart of life. Just as we are on Ash Wednesday. We ask that there be memory: indeed an everlasting...
Learning How to Have a Good Time Together
“What is a good time? Does anything of the sort exist?” Josef Pieper “The trick is not to arrange a festival, but to find people who can enjoy it.” Friedrich Nietzsche The time we spend with loved ones during Christmastide can be downright discouraging. People get...
Remembering Deceased Loved Ones at Christmas
“I recall now two of my friends, who although no longer among the living are still alive for me and always will be.” Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship People die. This is one of the thorniest problems in the philosophy of friendship, as in the philosophy of...
Intentional Friendship
“In choosing and testing friends you should not grow weary of caution, for the fruit of this labor is medicine for life and the most solid foundation for immortality.” Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship In his great treatise Aelred names four steps of true...
Telling Stories at Thanksgiving
“Come, rather,” then she said, “dear guest, and tell us From the beginning the Greek stratagems…” The room fell silent, and all eyes were on him, As Father Aeneas from his high couch began… Virgil, The Aeneid Each of us has stories: the stories that are chapters of...
Doing Something about the Technology Problem
“Technology enchants; it makes us forget what we know about life. The new—any old new—becomes confused with progress.” “When we move from conversation to mere connection, we get a lot of unintended consequences.” Sherri Turkle, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of...
The Conversation of Friends
"...they have little taste for conversation, which especially seems to be the mark and cause of friendship." Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics One of the most notable aspects of Aristotle’s understanding of true friendship is just how much it requires of a person. In this...
When a Daughter Gets Engaged
“I think that the gods exercised especially acute discernment in establishing the particular pairing which is called ‘male and female,’ to ensure that, when the partners cooperate, such a pair may be of the utmost mutual benefit.” Xenophon, The Estate Manager One of...
