Category: Friendships

My posts on the friendship of mutual respect between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, the selflessness of Winston Churchill, and the emotional intimacy of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, demonstrate some of the traits needed among the friends in a man’s inner circle. I have two more posts in this subset of friendships from the world of politics: this post about how enemies can still be friends, and another about the life of Alexander Hamilton. After those posts, I’ll begin the next subset of friendships from sports, entertainment, and literature.  Friends With The Enemy?  According to Wikipedia, a “Frenemy” (also spelled “frienemy”) is an oxymoron; the case where one or two words or concepts appear side by side and seem to have opposing meanings. Therefore, the self-contradicting mash-up of ‘friend’ and ‘enemy’ is “a person with whom one is friendly, despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry” or “a person who

Much has been debated about the friendship of Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Speed, and whether “Honest Abe” was truly honest about his sexuality. In this next post of my series, New Year; New Types of Friends, I’ll explain more about the friendship between two young men who sought solace in their anxious, confused fears about women, and how they helped each other out of the doldrums of despair. In the Introduction to Examples of Real-life Friendships I describe six archetypes for friendship that every man needs to connect with on a regular basis: The Mentor, The Wingman/Bachelor, The Handyman, The Fitness Buff, The Work Pal, along with my theory called a GodBuddy. Similar to my post about the friendship between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, the close friendship between Lincoln and Speed is another example from politics that shows how a man’s inner circle helps make him a better man.

Many people believe that Winston Churchill was one of the most effective leaders of his time. As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, his leadership helped rally the British people –and many nations around the world, to defeat the Nazi regime during World War II. This next post in my series, New Year; New Types of Friends describes the selfless approach to leadership and friendship of Winston Churchill. It’s a trait that can help anyone earn the trust and respect of their good friends. In the book, Comprehensive Judgement and Absolute Selfishness: Winston Churchill on Politics as Friendship, John von Heyking makes the case that “friendship plays a central role in [Churchill’s] moral vision of politics.”  About Winston Churchill  Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965) was born in Oxfordshire, England. He was a direct descendant of the 1st Duke of Marlborough, General John Churchill