{"id":1788,"date":"2008-06-12T09:01:42","date_gmt":"2008-06-12T14:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinepage.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/12\/the-definition-of-true-friendship\/"},"modified":"2008-06-12T09:01:42","modified_gmt":"2008-06-12T14:01:42","slug":"the-definition-of-true-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/12\/the-definition-of-true-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"The definition of true friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n« So has the experience affected your philosophy of life? » he said. « That’s not the right way to put it. What I mean is, has it changed what you believe in? »<\/p>\n

He didn’t say any of this in an ironic tone. He wanted to know.<\/p>\n

« I think I just believe more intensely in the things I believed in the first place. »<\/p>\n

« For example? »<\/p>\n

« That there is no God, and that the universe doesn’t give a flying fuck about us. That’s probably it. »<\/p>\n

« And does that imply a code of behavior? The universe doesn’t give a flying fuck about us, and therefore…? »<\/p>\n

Ralph was a friend who asked the second question. She thought that this might be one of the definitions of true friendship. If you have a friend who pays enough attention to you to ask the right question, you’re lucky; if you have a friend who listens to the answer, thinks some more, and asks the second question, then you’re blessed.<\/p>\n

« There is no therefore that I can find. No universal therefore. I still believe the same things I always believed, but it’s a choice. Life doesn’t care about us, everyone gets pulverized sooner or later, and therefore we should take care of each other. But I believe that because I choose to believe that. If it’s a therefore, it’s just a personal therefore. »<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Breakable You<\/a>, by Brian Morton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

« So has the experience affected your philosophy of life? » he said. « That’s not the right way to put it. What I mean is, has it changed what you believe in? » He didn’t say any of this in an ironic tone. He wanted to know. « I think I just believe more… Continue reading The definition of true friendship<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martinepage.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}