Aristotle and Friendship

Steven Robinson, P.M., Secretary, Jackson Lodge No. 146, Seymour

Aristotle said that there are three kinds of friendship.

• We have friends who make us laugh, whose company we enjoy.
• We have friends who are useful to us, who lend things to us, who do things for us that we cannot do well for ourselves.
• Finally, we have "friends in the good." This friendship occurs when we are united with others in a common undertaking, which lifts us to another level, giving us a desire to strive for something beyond our own lives. This is the highest form of friendship, and we seek it, says Aristotle, because we quite simply become better people for having "friends in the good."

Masonry, as I see it, is a "friendship in the good." And, that friendship in the good simply cannot be experienced in isolation--it can be experienced only by interacting with others--your friends in the good.

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