friendship - a rare commodity?

I just read a fascinating article called America: Land of Loners?  The by-line is what drew me in: "Americans, plugged in and on the move, are confiding in their pets, their computers, and their spouses. What they need is to rediscover the value of friendship."

The author packs quite a bit into one article (impressive) - looking at the concept of friendship across time, literature, social issues, and the list goes on.

Why do I think this article is worth considering?  Because we do live in a very connected but lonely culture.  I feel extraordinarily blessed by the amazing friendships in my life.  And yet I have realized over time that that is not the norm for many of the people I rub shoulders with in my day-to-day world.  One part of the article included some of Aristotle's thoughts on friendship - amazing how relevant these are all these years later:

"Aristotle, who saw friendship as essential to human flourishing, shrewdly observed that it comes in three distinct flavors: those based on usefulness (contacts), on pleasure (drinking buddies), and on a shared pursuit of virtue—the highest form of all. True friends, he contended, are simply drawn to the goodness in one another, goodness that today we might define in terms of common passions and sensibilities."

I think his analysis is spot-on.  Not that there's anything innately wrong with contacts and drinking buddies.  But I can think of people I know who are entirely missing the third category - true friends who live out commitment to one another expecting nothing in return (as the article goes on to talk about).

That's probably enough of my rambling on this topic . . . except for two final thoughts :-)  First: I think the offer of friendship (remember - expecting nothing in return) portrays the Gospel-lived-out like nothing else - a way we can participate in what God is doing in others' lives.  And it's something that many people out there are craving.

Lastly: another quote from the article that I loved:
"Henry David Thoreau, lamenting that to most people a friend is simply someone who is not an enemy, declared, perhaps wishfully, 'Friends do not live in harmony, merely, as some say, but in melody.'” 

So I am grateful today for the "kindred spirits" in my life (as Anne Shirley would say) . . . and am also challenged to think about where I should be extending friendship to those around me in need of it.