the nature of friendship

I reread most of C.S. Lewis' The Four Loves a couple nights ago, and it really helped me understand so much better my feelings about my senior class trip. I was struck by the wonderful fellowship the four of us had, and I wondered why it was so spectacular. Thanks to C.S. Lewis, now I know. I am going to quote a selection here from his section concerning friendship, which has long been one of my favorites.

"But two, far from being the necessary number for Friendship, is not even the best. And the reason for this is important.
"Lamb says somewhere that if, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but 'A's part in C,' while C loses not only A but 'A's part in B.' In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald's reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him 'to myself' now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald. ...we possess each friend not less but more as the number of those with whom we share him increases."

I have enjoyed a wonderful community at school generally, but especially in my amazing classmates. Each of us brings out something in the others, so that when we are together, we all complement each other. I noticed that we hardly ever stopped laughing or smiling about something on our senior trip. Part of this is because all four of us have robust senses of humor, but also because we each brought out the most enjoyable in each other. I hope that throughout our lives we have many opportunities to meet and bring out unique things in the others once more, but I can't help but feel that our graduation and dispersion will greatly change our tightly knit community.

I'll let you make the rest of the connections, because I can't really add much to C.S. Lewis. I highly recommend The Four Loves to anyone who hasn't read it (or anyone who has)--perhaps even more highly than I would recommend C.S. Lewis in general.