January 8, 1999
What Friends are For
Let's see. . . friends are good for a laugh, avoiding pressing work, invading Cuba in a rowboat, splitting the cost of a pizza, discussing the meaning of life. . . but these really don't fully describe what a friend really is. You know what a friend is? A friend is quite simply just intellectual fodder.
Think about it. While spending time with friends, your mind is inundated with experience. First of all, what do we generally remember the most about the past? If I think of high school, I don't remember when I learned that William conquered Harold at Hastings in 1066; I remember the day I scared two freshmen with my hairy navel (don't ask). An individual is a sum of memories, the majority of which are times spent with friends.
Also, it is to friends that we divulge our secrets, our latent thoughts, our fears. Friends naturally leach out of us the unspoken. The thoughts might only make it as far as the subconscious, but they are there, churning around till they ultimately fruition into some verbalization.
Friends are the birthing grounds for ideas. Isolated from friends, it grows increasingly difficult for me to write these Diogenes. I miss them.