When I first started reading this post I thought the antipathy was toward what I said - that you really hated me that much. Looks like that's not the case. I can live with anger toward Piper. :-) That's usually my first response though I also try to move beyond that since a lot of people actually accept the basis of his opinions (albeit in milder forms). So he seems worth talking about calmly and rationally. Also, worth railing at, but it's my temperament --based on competency, not divine hardwiring-- to go for the calm approach.

I found your comment about the scarcity of friendship really interesting. I think people move around a lot, but the internet and other technologies make it easier than ever to have a real friendship from a distance. I suspect the biggest problem is a fear of being vulnerable, which is at least as much a part of friendship as it is a part of romance. Also we are so busy; we want people to do things with, but not necessarily folks to listen to, or who will really listen to us. So we want something we can't quite lay our finger on. That's why stories about friendship are so crucial, I think. It's really very sad when you think about it.

As odd as this may sound, in some ways philosophy is my love language. That's a big part of why I talk about this stuff. Thanks for hearing me out.

P.S. - I realized I left you off the list of fannish friends. That was intentional, but I didn't mean it as an insult. The list was so female-heavy because fandom is so female, and since I was trying to point out the possibility of friendship across genders, I had to consciously stop myself from listing other women. So it's not that I don't care very much about our friendship, and I hope you didn't take it that way.