Close Friends

Multiple studies have shown we are most open to forming lifelong friendships upon entering high school, and again, college. 

Multiple longevity studies confirm that the five key ingredients of a long and happy life are good food, proper hydration, adequate sleep, exercise, and community.

That observation raises the distinction between being rich and being wealthy, i.e. while many rich people feel isolated and lonely, wealthy people are distinguished by their friendships and their supportive communities. Humans, being social animals, need one another to survive. But in today’s hermetically sealed, fully airconditioned, 72-and-sunny environment, how do we establish deep and long lasting friendships, especially in later life? 

In the introduction to his Member Monday topic this week, Steve Smith posits, through the featured article, that the key to forming meaningful relationships later in life is by means of “radical collaboration: the openness to being persuaded as much as an eagerness to persuade.”

While Steve and I come from different social and cultural backgrounds, differ on many subjects, and are otherwise wired with divergent personalities and perspectives, we try to keep each other sharp, like the two blades of a scissor rubbing against each other. In fact, Steve’s “radical collaboration” has helped build City Club into the successful community it is today, a perfect example of the lesson depicted in Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, wherein Huck offers to give Tom his apple for the privilege of letting him whitewash his fence, hence proving the value of friendship and community.

So next time someone asks you what City Club is all about, and why you are a member, one possible answer could be that it offers the ideal venue in which radical collaboration is the path to close and lasting friendships. 

— Sina.