I prefer to try to make words transparent; to warp the definitions toward new domains of liberty and, perhaps, insight. Otherwise the value-laden language habit I was scripted with describes a universe … with an ever-thinning opportunity landscape.

In any case, to me, the word [ friend ] necessarily means unique things in actual contexts. But in a general sense, a friend is an extension of my being. It may be momentary. Could be a spider, a bird, or a tree. A person I share a glance with that I will never meet again. Someone I meet during an adventure. Or someone that is in my life in an ongoing way. I cannot say whether or not they see me as an extension of their being; that’s for them to say.

But I want to act in what I perceive as my friend’s ‘interests’ or sometimes purposes, even if they are not precisely my own. For with a friend … I can become that which I could not even conceive of by myself. That said, on a good day, I can be my own friend… too. But that’s a strange idea. It means there can be at least two of me…