On the Art and Power of Friendship, Part 2
Long-distance friendships, the importance of friendship in times of collapse, and more
Dear Enchantable readers (and listeners!),
How do you maintain long-distance friendships?
What is the significance and role of friendship in an age of collapse?
Is friendship vulnerable within late-stage capitalism?
What does it mean to truly be there for a friend when you are far away?
How do you practice strengthening relationships in your daily life?
These are some of the questions we consider in our second episode of On the Art and Power of Friendship with my dear friend and creative collaborator, Kimberlyn David (KD)!
If you missed the first episode, you can find it here.
Our second conversation was, in part, inspired by my peace education students at the University for Peace, who are preparing for the end of the academic year, which means they will be heading home to their respective countries soon. Having formed close relationships with each other, they asked about tips for maintaining long-distance friendships. So, in this episode, we talk about long-distance friendships and so much more, including why friendships matter in late-stage capitalism. We also look at simple practices to strengthen our connections with others.
Grab yourself a favorite beverage, settle in, and listen to our conversation here:
Episode Highlights
We talk about themes such as:
Letter writing and how letters register on a different heart-scale than other forms of communication
Intentionality as the glue that holds long-distance friendships together
Wooing our friends like we would a romantic partner - it’s just a different kind of wooing
Friendship as survival:
“Our survival literally depends on being seen and feeling heard or being heard. Our literal survival as human beings depends on these two things. So when I think about connecting with people that we have some kind of friendship with, that's ultimately what it's about, why we're connecting.” -KDRelationships as resistance:
“Anything we can do to maintain and strengthen our relationality, whether it's through our communities, through our families, through our closest friendships, through our long distance friendships, we absolutely need to be doing that.” - KD
An old friend in Colorado Springs
As I send this out, I am writing to you from one of my will-always-be-homes, Colorado Springs, where we are spending some time ahead of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor conference in Denver next week. The past few days I have been visiting old friends - human friends and more-than-human friends - so the themes of this episode are feeling very alive for me, as the friends I am visiting, who I used to see often, are now long distance, and it is so wonderful to reconnect in person. I’ll write more about this visit in a future post as a follow-up to my essay many returns, about returning home and coming back to ourselves.
The Friendship Blessing
May we be touched by the power of friendship in our lives.
May we be held in the power of friend-love.
May friendliness extend to all our relationships.
May we widen our scope of friendliness
and dwell in the abundance and generosity that friendship brings to our lives
and the gift that is each unique friend.
May our friendships allow us to practice being ourselves fully
so that we can show up for ourselves, our friends, and our communities.
We'd love to know what you think about these conversations so far, and if you have a specific topic you'd like us to cover next time or a question you have about friendship, please be sure to leave a comment or send me a message!
We hope you enjoy the conversations!
With the immense power of friendship,
Stephanie and Kimberlyn
Episode Notes
Insight Dialogue
Book: Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom, by Gregory Kramer, https://www.shambhala.com/insight-dialogue-806.html
Global practice community: https://insightdialogue.org/
Article about $200/month anti-loneliness club in LA: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/nov/21/california-groundfloor-social-club-friendships-loneliness
Website for Peoplehood, an in-person and/or online "workout" for relationship building: https://www.peoplehood.com/
Connecting with our theme of being there, we’ll send you off with a song from Wilco’s album of that same name (which I recommend listening to in its entirety!):