Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ttidcc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe
From: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Defining Relationships
Message-ID: <21@ttidcc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 15-Nov-85 14:28:52 EST
Article-I.D.: ttidcc.21
Posted: Fri Nov 15 14:28:52 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Nov-85 07:28:06 EST
References: <2374@ukma.UUCP>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
Distribution: na
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 38
Summary: 

In article <2374@ukma.UUCP> slg@ukma.UUCP (Sean Gilley) writes:
>                                                   ... everyone I
>know fits into a kind of a pyramid. ...
>
>     It works like this.  At the top are the people that I am `in
>love'  with.   (Yes, this can be plural.)  On the next level down
>are those I `love'.  These are whom I consider  to  be  my  close
>friends.  Next  down  are  those  I  consider `friends'. Next are
>aquaintences. And lastly are those I don't know at all. ...
>
>I'd  like  to  know  what kind of philosophys others have on this
>matter....

I used to have  a  classification  scheme  for  people  I  knew.  The  main
divisions  were  friend  (very  few)  vs.  acquaintance (somewhat more) vs.
stranger (the rest of the world).  At the time my definition of  friendship
implied  that  I  loved  the  person.  (I wasn't "in love" with anyone, but
that's another story).

To shorten a long story, I eventually found I couldn't  live  with  such  a
classification  scheme.  The people I knew were all too different from each
other, my relationships with them too diverse and complex,  to  allow  such
a simple-minded categorization.

Now I think of each person I know as an individual.  My  relationship  with
any  given  individual  is  unique.  Each has its strengths and weaknesses.
When the relationship is, on average, a positive one from my point of  view
I  call that person a friend.  If the relationship is, on average, negative
I usually end up removing that person from my  life,  if  possible.  Beyond
that, I try not to categorize anybody.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe)
Citicorp(+)TTI                    The more I work with C, the more I
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.             appreciate the simple elegance of
Santa Monica, CA  90405           FORTRAN.
(213) 450-9111, ext. 2483
{philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe