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Thursday, April 14, 2016

L IS FOR FRIENDHIP?

“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”
 - Sigmund Freud





Freud looked troubled at me.  "We have reached L -- what comes to mind at that?"

"Lord of the Rings," I said.



Freud groaned in disappointment.  "A mere entertainment of the cinema?"

"No, it was more than merely a movie" I said.  

"The three movies are a moving testimony to the saving grace of true friendship."

"Bah! Friendship, as I define it, plays a key role between individuals to the extent 

that it appears as a metaphor for those relationships between two people that, unlike the state of romantic love, lead to a broader form of unity."

Mark Twain wrinkled his face as if
 he had bitten into a lemon as Freud when on.  

"In this sense, I connect it with these other ties that are based on the aim-inhibited sexual impulses: 

the tender relationship between parent and child, and conjugal love in which the sexual relationship has gradually fallen into second place."

Freud played with his unlit cigar.  

"These two bonds form the basis for the broader unity that is constituted by the family, 

just as friendship is the foundation for the creation of social ties."


Mark Twain snorted, 

"All that fancy talk gave my brain the whim-wams! 

When we think of friends, and call their faces out of the shadows, and their voices out of the echoes that murmur along the corridors of memory, 

and do it without knowing why, save that we love to do it,

 we prove that friendship is a Reality, and not a Fancy--

that it is built upon a rock, and not upon the sands that dissolve away with the ebbing tides and carry their monuments with them."

Freud said, "You are a sentimentalist.  I am a scientist." 

"And a mighty cold-blooded one, Coke Head.  

The proper office of a friend is to side with you when you are in the wrong. Nearly anybody will side with you when you are in the right."

Mark lit a cigar and blew the smoke into the granite face of Freud. 

 "Why, the holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime ... 

if not asked to lend money."

17 comments:

  1. Love the funny twist Mark Twain throws in at the end (with your help, of course).

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    1. All the quotes belong to those two.I just picked the ones that felt "right." :-)

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  2. Love it and that closing line is so true! So, I am a sentimentalist and proud of it :) Friendship is to be valued. Maybe that's why I was so rubbish at science in school? Great post, Roland!

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  3. Hi Roland ... we need to be friends and empathisers to people around us, and especially to family. The closing line is so true ...

    Scientists need to see all around them ... and can't be cold fish ... but it happens to many in public life ... cheers Hilary

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    1. Especially social scientists need to keep in touch with their own souls during their studies and research! Thanks for visiting and talking awhile. :-)

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  4. What? L is for a word that begins with that letter? Is this a psychological test, Roland? "Let's see how they react!"kind of test?

    I'm a sentimentalist, too, so I side with Twain on almost all issues.

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    1. Always be unpredictable is my motto for these posts! :-) And I am with you, too, Lee: a sentimentalist.

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  5. There is no late -- there is only a fitting meeting of kindred spirits. :-)

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  6. Well, I agree that the mark of a true friend is that he or she will take your side even when you are in the wrong. (Said friend might point out that you are wrong - but they will support you nevertheless.)

    Susan A Eames from
    Travel, Fiction and Photos

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    1. Yes, to stand by your friend even in the dark, wrong times is hard -- to say "You're mistaken but I have your back" is a true act of friendship! :-)

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  7. Friendship can be fragile as easily as it is strong, as long as we don't tread on that which is important to that other person. Love can break up a friendship when it's a triangle, and can sour if not cared for. Love is very complex. . .

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    1. Both love and friendship, like every living thing, need tending and care. :-)

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  8. L is for Life, Love, Friends, and Mark Twain. L is also for Leave Freud at Home.

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    1. The ghost of Mark Twain would agree with you about Freud!

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