Relationships. That indefinable space between two people. The trajectory of my relationships, by type, in life evolved from family to friends to lover. Each in itself follows its own internal logic, yet there is something generalizable about relationships as well. Usually, people lay greater emphasis on the lover in their life, as if this is the definitive, primus inter pares, of all interactions. But each relationship needs to be tended, no matter what priority it receives in one's hierarchy of affinity.
Despite universally-recognized categories of how A should relate to B, depending on how their relationship is labeled, one could argue that each relationship is unique. Each relationship can only be defined by those in it.
A ---> B : positive and direct.
A ---> 1/B : inversely proportional
A=/ B : no relation
I am B. Which A are you?, is the question.
The fundamental, irreducible component of scientific inquiry is determining causation and the relation between two or more variables. A acts upon B and the effect (or lack thereof) is measured.
If instead of an individual A but, instead, a set A where all its elements are people who you've met, is B simply the effect of A? Can a person exist without others? Or are we the result of interaction upon interaction; mirrors, echoes, shadows?
Can one know oneself without reference to the other?
Today's story is about friendship. What is a friend? Someone to hang out with? To get drunk with? To spend time with yet be sexually off limits to? An A from whose opinion and regard has an ineffable effect on Subject B? A keeper of confidence, a pillar of support, a shoulder to cry on?
But isn't friendship the most pervasive among the thousands of permutations any given relationship may be made of? Isn't it the most mature and highly developed interaction among any pairs or groups of individuals? Should we not all strive for a genuine friendship to develop with our family members, our acquaintances, our lovers?
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