Here's a thought on friendship from Aquinas' short treatise advising a king on good governance, De Regno. A tyrant, he argues, is worse off than a good king because he forgoes all the real pleasures available to a king (friendship chief among them) by making himself an enemy to his people. Then this:
"First of all, among all worldly things there is nothing which seems worthy to be preferred to friendship. Friendship unites good men and preserves and promotes virtue. Friendship is needed by all men in whatsoever occupations they engage. In prosperity it does not thrust itself uwanted upon us, nor does it desert us in adversity. It is what brings with it the greatest delight, to such an extent that all that pleases is changed to weariness when friends are absent, and all difficult things are made easy and as nothing by love."
The other (not wholly unrelated) thing on my mind: We happened across the movie Stayin' Alive the other night (sequel to Saturday Night Fever, this time Travolta takes Broadway), and I still have the Bee Gees bouncing around in my head. And of course, one also winds up with Travolta's denim-encased backside bobbing around too. This seems to be the point of the movie. But I can't help thinking that if I were walking the streets of New York City at night with such tiny, exposed flanks, I'd want a few friends around.
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