“Most men’s friendships are too inarticulate.”—William James letter to his friend Carl Stumpf, May 26, 1893, in The Thought and Character of William James, by Ralph Barton Perry (1936)
I’m glad that even so brilliant a philosopher and prose stylist like James could feel that words were inadequate to convey all that he owed to someone else. I am experiencing something similar right now as I think of how much dinner last night with my longtime friends Pat, Louise, Cathy, Margaret and Laura meant to me. The words might be so hard to write because the feelings they convey are bound up so tightly in my heart. “Thank you” doesn’t begin to say all you feel for someone you’ve known since high school, and even longer. These endlessly smart, funny, and vivacious women have known me for too long—and accept me anyway. Amazing.
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