I spent the evening with friends. Five of us sat around a table on a second floor balcony overlooking the lobby of a very large yuppie church. As we munched on our smuggled-in pizza, we ignored the two score people below us who were on their way to a variety of classes.
We were there for a common purpose. Being writers, we talked about writing. But there was an intimacy and a respect and a trust that permitted a most uncommon vulnerability to permeate our discussions.
When I returned home (and for the remainder of the night), thoughts of Sam, Julie, Kim, and Kerry floated lightly just on the edge of my conscious mind. Something had evolved in my relationship to this group.
The answer, of course, was that we had become friends. At the same time, this same answer seems simplistic, certainly overworked and often misapplied. We had been strangers. By joining and regularly participating in the same writer’s group, we had become the equivalent of co-workers. When had this become something more?
My question, then, is this; what are “friends?” Is it possible to define this type of relationship? (And if you CAN define it, does that in some way weaken it?) I turned to poetry – I wanted to find something that would express, well, the spirit of a group friendship. Nothing was there. Apparently, according to the very best of poets, a “friendship” is something that only happens between a man and a woman – resulting in and/or leading to heavy breathing on SOMEBODY’s part, then yeah, sure, that’s friendship. Must be it. Gotta be.
But how do you define a group of people who just like to get together and hang out?
We were there for a common purpose. Being writers, we talked about writing. But there was an intimacy and a respect and a trust that permitted a most uncommon vulnerability to permeate our discussions.
When I returned home (and for the remainder of the night), thoughts of Sam, Julie, Kim, and Kerry floated lightly just on the edge of my conscious mind. Something had evolved in my relationship to this group.
The answer, of course, was that we had become friends. At the same time, this same answer seems simplistic, certainly overworked and often misapplied. We had been strangers. By joining and regularly participating in the same writer’s group, we had become the equivalent of co-workers. When had this become something more?
My question, then, is this; what are “friends?” Is it possible to define this type of relationship? (And if you CAN define it, does that in some way weaken it?) I turned to poetry – I wanted to find something that would express, well, the spirit of a group friendship. Nothing was there. Apparently, according to the very best of poets, a “friendship” is something that only happens between a man and a woman – resulting in and/or leading to heavy breathing on SOMEBODY’s part, then yeah, sure, that’s friendship. Must be it. Gotta be.
But how do you define a group of people who just like to get together and hang out?
Huh? Whadda ya say to that?
Being a writer, I may need to know how things like this happen. What if I wanna write about it some day? So, have you thought about that?
See what you guys have done to me? No no. All you wanna do is get together and enjoy each other’s company. Is that fair? Selfish – that’s what I’d call it. I mean – would I do something like that to you?
And … can we do something like that again? Soon?
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