ABSTRACT
Next to the air we breathe, we are sustained by our friends. I think that friendships are second in importance only to oxygen—perhaps a slight exaggeration. We are tribal people and there is in the human condition a need to belong to the neighborhood, race, church, club, family, job or ethnic group. In truth, most people long for the deep satisfaction that comes from being known at the level of who they really are, that level that knows no boundaries. We profess and boast of a certain individualism, yet we constantly act out our visceral need for community in many and varied ways.
