International Day of Friendship
July 30, 2017
Scroll through your contact list and select a contact you don’t immediately recognize – bonus points if it’s listed only by first name, inanimate object name, or Homeric epithet (e.g., “no-pants frat boy,” “wonk-eye bowling pin,” “governor-elect,” etc.). Depending on the information available to you, begin a correspondence over text, email, or physical mail with a simple greeting, slowly escalating the frequency and intensity of your communications over the course of the day. Forge a genuine emotional connection with your rediscovered contact. Meet for coffee. Fall in love. Get married. (Friendship plays an integral role in successful marriages.) In one year, begin the process again.
Links & Learning
Are online friends “real?”
- Nobody Has Real Friends Anymore – New York Post
- Let’s Really Be Friends: A Defense of Online Intimacy – New Republic
- I’d Rather Have Online Friends Than Real Ones – Washington Post
- Online Friends Vs. Real Life Friends: A Comparison – Thought Catalog
- Friendship in the Time of Technology – Huffington Post (source for our cover image, too)
Making and keeping friends.
- How to Make New Friends (and Keep the Old) as a Young Adult – Greatist
- How to Make Friends as an Adult in Four Simple Steps – Huffington Post
- How to Be a Good Friend – Real Simple
- 27 Small But Awesome Ways to Be a Good Friend – BuzzFeed
What’s all this about Homer?
- Epithets in Homer on Wikipedia
- Homer on Biography.com
- The Odyssey, translated by Samuel Butler courtesy of MIT’s Classics department
- The Illiad, translated by Samuel Butler courtesy of MIT’s Classics department
Not to be confused with Homer Simpson.
- 29 Homer Simpson Quotes Guaranteed to Make You Laugh Every Time – BuzzFeed
- Homer Simpson on the Simpsons Wiki
- Every time Homer Simpson says “D’oh” in seasons 1-20:
Buying things makes us feel better
- Handmade friendship bracelets by MaxtacyHandcraft on Etsy
- Best friends heart necklace by MissDiary on Etsy
- Best Friends art print by Bellymonster on Society6
- Fox & Bear: Best Friends art print by Alina Milisunaite Galleries on Society6
- Besties art print by Leah Reena Goren on Society6
- Frog and Toad Are Friends on Amazon
Let’s be friends! Certain Doom is on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.