Category: Friendships

As I continue my series, New Year; New Types of Friends, I’ll move into examples of friendships in literature. From what is considered the first modern novel, the 1605 tome, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, to John Steinbeck’s 1937’s book Of Mice and Men, many of the best-loved works of fiction in history feature stories about friendships that help transform the main characters. More recent literary giants such as Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, J.K. Rowling, and even cartoonist Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame (yes, even comics are considered literature!) have added great works about friendships.  So let’s start this next subset of friendships from literature, with two authors, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who sharpened their viewpoints and deepened their friendship in a discussion group called The Inklings. About C.S. Lewis  Clive Staples Lewis (born November 29, 1898; died November 22, 1963) was a British writer

To wrap up this subset of examples of friendships in television, let me provide some snippets about other well-known sidekicks who made their friends better. Just as Andy Griffith needed Barney Fife and Oscar Madison needed Felix Unger, many of my previous examples in this subset needed a top-notch, second banana. Its why everyone needs a good sidekick among their friends. At the start of this series titled, New Year; New Types of Friends I suggested that all men need to reevaluate their friendships from time to time. Everyone will eventually realize that some friends may no longer be helping them grow. In fact, sometimes a bad sidekick may even stunt your personal growth or derail it. That’s when you need to determine it’s time for a new, even better, sidekick. Why a Sidekick In my Introduction post to the subsets with examples of real-life friendships, I linked to my

This next post in my series, New Year; New Types of Friends is from the epitome of shows about friendships at work. The Office shows that friendships with your co-workers are not always as genuine as you might expect. Although I’m not a big fan of the show, it reveals how much co-workers can get involved in each other’s lives and become close friends. It also shows that not all work friendships are valuable, especially when there is one-up-manship in the office. About The Office  The Office is an American mockumentary television series about the everyday work lives of employees at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. It debuted on NBC as a mid-season replacement for Committed, a Gen X dating sitcom featuring a dying clown who lives in a closet. It aired 201 episodes from March 24, 2005, to May 16, 2013, spanning a total of