Song writers do not tend to write songs about a friendship. Why is that? Film makers do not tend to make films about a friendship, unless there is a girl who gets in the way of it. Why is that? Have we lost the ability to tell good stories about friendship? Have we actually devalued friendship to the point where we don't have many good stories to tell? A film about friendship that comes to mind is The Social Network, but the story it tells is "death of friendship" stuff. That is what makes the film so good. It may not be historically accurate, but it rings true.
As for books about friendship, I don't know what the landscape looks like. I'm stuck reading theology. But one book of note is Hauerwas's memoir, which is a book about his friends almost as much as it is a book about himself. Or should I say, it is a book about his friendships, which give us glimpses into the kind of person he is by showing the kind of person he is as he relates to his friends and as they relate to him. Hauerwas might say that he is un-understandable without his friends. In fact he may actually have said that. I don't remember. As I like to say, creativity is forgetting where you read it.
And so to the inspiration of this post - a song about a friendship, written in the early 90's by one of my musical heroes. They don't write 'em like they used to.
do you remember our first subway ride?
our first heavy metal haircuts?
our last swim on the east coast?
and me with my ridiculous looking pierced nose?
i remember your warm smile in the sun
the daydreaming boy without a shirt on
the birmingham barfly father
left the mother of three sons
you’re the oldest juvenile delinquent bum
my best friend
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