Lace, Webs, and Friendship

Today I continue working on an image of a mint leaf. I was thinking about the veins as a kind of lace. The veins on a leaf transport water and nutrients and they also act as a type of skeleton to help the leaf keep its shape.

The text on today’s card

δέῖ τῷ εὐδαίμονι φίλων 

or 

Dei tō eudaimoni philōn· If you prefer the Roman alphabet

comes from Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics (1169B) and can be translated as:

Friendship (FILIA) is necessary for (long term) happiness (EUDAIMONIA).

I was thinking about how webs and nets, which can be seen as a kind of lace, are a metaphor for friendship and empathy. Aristotle said that true friends SYZEN or live together; that is, they share values, conversations, and experiences.

A second perspective on friendship can be found in Rilke. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet (7) said that “Love consists in this. That two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other.” I think this line can be seen as a metaphor about friendship as a web. As you draw closer to another person you both connect with the other person but also retain your own identity. Like nodes in a web, friends are both connected yet also separate. Friends protect each other’s solitude.

I have three friends I have known since 1987 that I still communicate with on a roughly weekly basis: Rand in Williamsville NY, Bill in Penn Yan NY and Ted in Houghton NY. We put effort into listening to the joys and struggles we have on a regular, often weekly basis. The work we put into our friendships help each other hold on to happiness. 

But KHALEPA TA KALA. That is, valuable things require hard work, according to Plato in the Republic.

QOTD: What metaphors do you use to understand love and friendship?