(no subject)
I've just been looking back at all this Livejournal stuff and reminiscing about old friendships. People move, they lose touch with their buddies... . So I wanted to "get philosophical".
I am of the position that "quantity time" is more important than quality time. That prolonged time spent in each other's company (such as in college or university) is enough to get people who don't have much in common to gain affection for each other. Mutual presence is a form of kinship. The more prolonged, the greater the bond.
But just now I've started to question this. There are such people from my life who I didn't maintain closeness with after becoming friends ... simply because we didn't have much in common. We let each other go. I rarely come across people that I have much in common with. Especially these days. The rise of social networking means we "connect" with people with similar interests easier - but it's a very shallow friendship without any face-to-face contact. As we've all been getting older over the past 15+ years, rather than coming together, we've been getting more and more hermit-like. I expect the same will happen to the current generation of youngsters.
My primary school motto, which incidentally is also a biblical quote, was "Hold fast that which is good".