Friendship is both important and complex.  It can bring pleasure to almost any activity.  One crucial factor is trust.  Getting buried in the sand is fun only if you trust your friend and your friend proves trustworthy.

There are a couple of distinct interpretations:  1) Distance is no barrier to friendship; a friend will always find a way to be there for you.  2)  The anticipation of being with a friend makes the trip to his house seem short.

I would like to get rid of all of my enemies without making new ones.  Is there a better way than to try Lincoln’s advice?

Not all of the people I enjoyed hanging out with are real friends.  Some of them were only interested in having fun together, they discouraged me from doing things that didn’t involve them – it is as if they only thought of me as a plaything, one of their toys.  My real friends wanted to see me succeed and encouraged me to try new things, even if it meant moving on without them.  Those are the people that I have actually stayed close to decades later.  They are the people who care enoug...

There have been times when someone confided in me, expressing grief over a loss or describing an incident that had hurt some much that talking about it brought tears to both of our eyes.  As painful as these experiences were, I always felt good about them afterward.  There have been other times that I have embarrassed someone by laughing at them.  I don’t feel good about those times.

The key isn’t the laughing or crying, it is the...