I think you can’t let
people alone too much. For my part, if I try to characterize my friends, I fail
to do them perfect justice, of course; and yet the imperfect result remains
representative of them in my mind; it limits them and fixes them; and I can’t
get them back again into the undefined and the ideal where they really belong.
William Dean Howells - A Foregone Conclusion (1875)
It is easy enough to grasp Howells’ point about not
analysing friends too much, why we should leave them in the undefined and the ideal where they really
belong. Friendships are fragile, easily damaged. Maybe the same caution
also applies to certain acquaintances such as a good boss, a competent doctor
or an amiable barber.
What about celebrities, favoured political figures or
even football teams? Here we are inclined to turn the thing on its head - here we tend to leave
them in the undefined and the ideal
where they really do not belong.
3 comments:
That is why one should keep friends close and enemies closer.
Given that it is so easy to make mistakes and so hard to get things right, it is better not to bother.
Roger - the trouble is, our real enemies are inaccessible.
Demetrius - possibly so, it's mostly instinctive anyway.
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