Friendship Advent Reflection, December 1.
For this advent, I will be reflecting a little on Friendship. Typically the first week of advent focuses on the prophets. Since I didn't write about the prophets in my book, I figured I'd share a thought each day from one of the Greco-Roman thinkers I discuss in my book. I'll start with Plato. In his "Lysis" dialogue, Plato portrays Socrates musing with a group of young wrestlers after their practice about the nature of friendship. He runs through numerous definitions. One of the first he considers is that friends are "like to the like." What do you think about that? Do you seek out friends who are like you in your tastes, character, political ideas, ethnicity, gender, etc? What do we gain from solidarity with those who are like us? Our social media algorithms often show us posts from friends with whom we agree. So there must be some value in seeking out people who are similar to us. But do we miss anything, if our friends are only always like us? As...