{"id":35551,"date":"2012-05-22T08:22:32","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T15:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=35551"},"modified":"2014-12-30T17:14:04","modified_gmt":"2014-12-31T00:14:04","slug":"speaking-of-leah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2012\/05\/speaking-of-leah.html","title":{"rendered":"Speaking of Leah&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>She wonders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/05\/what-are-we-going-to-do-about-homosocial-friendship.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cWhat are we going to do about homosocial friendship?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I think the obvious answer is, \u201cCall it by its normal name: friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is a mark of our culture\u2019s derangement that we have a difficult time conceiving of friendship and imagine there has to be some sexual component, tinge, subtext or undertone to every human relationship.\u00a0Words like \u201chomosocial\u201d add absolutely nothing of value, but do manage, by the inevitable human tendency to respond to verbal reminders, to drag into the conversation a sexual undertone and suggestion that\u00a0is not\u00a0there when you simply say \u201cfriendship\u201d.\u00a0Those who have experienced deep friendship and who know how deeply false a suggestion of eros is to the sort of love that is friendship naturally rebel at this societal tendency to sexualize everything\u2013and are then diagnosed by that society as \u201cin denial\u201d.\u00a0 Indeed, the very virulence by which they reject this silly claim is taken as \u201cevidence\u201d that the \u201cdenial\u201d is deeply rooted.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, it is the case that one of the great gifts God has given is the reality of a true and deep friendship, not rooted in sexual attraction in the slightest\u2013indeed, as foreign to real friendship as chocolate syrup and ice cream are to a hamburger\u2013but in another kind of love entirely.\u00a0 The loss of friendship and the eroticization of everything is one of the deepest tragedies of our time.\u00a0 And nobody feels it more keenly than the friendless American male.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>She wonders \u201cWhat are we going to do about homosocial friendship?\u201d I think the obvious answer is, \u201cCall it by its normal name: friendship.\u201d It is a mark of our culture\u2019s derangement that we have a difficult time conceiving of friendship and imagine there has to be some sexual component, tinge, subtext or undertone to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,123],"class_list":["post-35551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-doings-on-other-blogs","tag-the-dying-art-of-friendship"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Speaking of Leah...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"She wonders &quot;What are we going to do about homosocial friendship?&quot; I think the obvious answer is, &quot;Call it by its normal name: friendship.&quot; It is a mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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