Add a few more categories and it pretty much covers it that it is bad to
have any friends at all.
On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 10:21 PM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:
Essay 117 from the Tsurezure Gusa of Yoshida Kenko:
There are seven sorts of people whom it is bad to have as friends:
First, men of high rank and power.
Second, young people.
Third, strong people who are never ill.
Fourth, people fond of wine.
Fifth, fierce and bold military men.
Sixth, people whose speech is false.
Seventh, greedy people.
Good friends are three:
Friends who make gifts.
Doctors.
Friends who are wise.
I recall being in a long-standing series of discussions with a Russian who
worked in Moscow and was convinced that the Russian system, people,
everything was better than anything in the west. He finally got around to
the medical system and observed that I was at an age where I had
undoubtedly had treatments in hospitals. He intended no doubt to compare
his favorable treatment with what he assumed would have been my
unfavorable. But I told him that I had only been in a hospital once, when
I was four-years old, for appendicitis – and that may have been (another
doctor told my parents) a misdiagnosis. My Russian “friend” immediately
ended the discussion and never wrote me again.
Lawrence
