Of Friends

"The mind's impromptu likes or dislikes, its ecentric detours, are the quirks that cement friendship," contributing editor Edward Hoagland opens his essay "On Friendship" in the latest American Scholar. Love for parents, spouse, children seems "as natural as leaves sprouting," he affirms. Yet, the luxuriance of love continues  where no self-replication is involved, no guardianship of clan, and "survival defers to whimsey, grace, and elan, where civilization takes hold." Deo gratias, for even if friendship were unnecesary, like philosophy and art, as C.S. Lewis posits, "it is one of those things that gives value to survival." On Friendship