It's a vibe grinding math homework late at my workstation at my lab, when there's no one to bug me. Until I eventually stumble home at 2:30 AM, drink a glass or two of milk, and pass out from exhaustion, I'm in a specific zone, and I'm not sure what it is. I'm going to miss these days, because they won't last after college, but they're so comfy. I have free rein to explore my thoughts in this environment.

And the question for tonight is on the topic of friendship. The question of, "what does it mean to have a friend close enough that you consider each other family" is a question that I think about a lot. It's an old question too; I think about what St. Gregory the Theologian felt at St. Basil's death, saying that he felt like a part of his soul died. The Achaeans of old definitely felt this, or Achilles would not have gone into a legendary rage that we still sing about when Patroclus died.

By nature, I'm somewhat reclusive about both my true feelings towards people and my true thoughts about things. Someone managing to truly break this shell is an achievement that only a handful of people have really done, usually through me being in a place where I'm hurting a lot, potentially while being inebriated. But if someone's opened up their whole soul to me, and I have to them, I no longer have any reason to hold back though. I can reveal everything to them, with the fullest intensity. 

It's a rare sight, but it's a blessed state whenever this happens. In the last few books of his Ethics, Aristotle talks about the various types of friendships. There are your friendships of pleasure, your friendships of convenience, and the only "real" sort of friendship, the friendship of virtue, all of which are to varying degrees. Since for Aristotle, virtue imitates something divine (since ultimately virtue is beautiful and beauty is God's activity in a thing), these friendships aid in contemplation of the Divine, which is the most excellent thing as the Philosopher states in his Metaphysics.  

I think Aristotle is right. I think that there's a fourth type of friendship though - a friendship not only predicated on virtue on a natural level, but on a supernatural level. One with very real spiritual significance. I'll post a quote from St. Francis de Sales here that I pray with a lot:

"It is a blessed thing to love on earth as we hope to love in heaven, and to begin that friendship here which is to endure for ever there. I am not now speaking of simple charity, a love due to all mankind, but of that spiritual friendship which binds souls together, leading them to share devotions and spiritual interests, so as to have but one mind between them." 

 Being able to call someone not related to you "brother" or "sister" in a very real way is a specific vibe. You shoulder their burdens, and you fight for them. One of these friends has been going through a lot of stuff recently. I'm not some sort of altruist, but helping said friend work out deep personal thoughts and stuff, while it's tiring, was insanely rewarding. I'd be lying if I said that incident wasn't the catalyst for this entire post. 

But this ends my incoherent screed. I should probably go to sleep or something, I have a PDE exam tomorrow and homework due in Abstract Algebra right after that. Pray for me, im just trying to survive and its slated to be a rough week :konatacry:

https://cawfee.club/media/573bcd0d95d5aa47277a04587490b1b79c3fe4a29246e8d5ceda26a5913828ba.jpeg