THE ART OF FRIENDSHIP

Friendship is like a surprise birthday present tied with bright paper and ribbons. . . . Friendship is like the first spring day after a dismal winter. . . . Friendship is like the sand and the sea where the tide ebbs and falls in ever-changing, ever-predictable dances. . . ."" And that's only the start of it. There's Martin Buber's friendship with a horse to consider, or Kahlil Gibran's ritual of sharing his soupbowl with a companion-secretary. There are plaisanteries and pensees from Cicero, Camus, Nat King Cole, Elizabeth Taylor and The Seventeen Guide to Knowing Yourself. There are the great ones: Laurel & Hardy, Franklin & Eleanor, Huntley & Brinkley, David & Julie, Gilbert & Sullivan. . . . The authors also make suggestions for better living composed of equal parts of Transactional Analysis and self-actualization, but mostly this is just a sampler of chocolate-cream sentiments to pop as they're dropped--indiscriminately and at random.