Friendship Diversity

Ann Friedman's piece on friendship diversity speaks to the friendship across differences idea that keeps coming up in my work. Ms. Friedman writes, "When it comes to your friend group, though, making a conscious diversity effort is fraught, to say the least" More on the nymag site. 

Loneliness and Friends

We need friends. We all know that. But if there is any doubt there are plenty of reports. And then there is the loneliness scale that I have sketched below. Adapted from the UCLA loneliness scale downloaded from The Fetzer website. 

Plato

Plato writes as far back as 350 BCE "Similarity begets friendship." Phaedrus. 

I wonder what he meant? 

How do children befriend?

Scholars studying children's friendships report that it's complicated. Complex verbal and non-verbal cues are involved. Also children tend to have more misunderstandings with friends than acquaintances.
A paper on children's friendships here.

The Origins of Friendship?

The origins of friendship is a puzzle.
I read about inter-species and intra-species friendships in the wild and captivity.
Shirley and Jenny - the 2 elephants' story is tragic. Revealing.
See the video - Shirley & Jenny Meeting after 22 years and the update on PBS.