self part II.

word of the day: refer to previous blog post.

I have accomplished a lot in life.

A few of my proudest accomplishments are as follows:

Last year, I read all seven Harry Potter books in three months.

Sophomore year of college I licked a tootsie roll pop all the way to the center without biting it. It’s true. There are witnesses.

I made it through all four years of college without ever attending a women’s basketball game.

I have managed to sit through at least five Nicolas Cage movies in my lifetime.

Most recently, I watched all 238 episodes of "Friends" in chronological order. It took me all of eight months.

As I watched the last few episodes of the show, it suddenly struck me why I love the show so much and what we can all learn from Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross: They knew each other.

I recognize that that doesn't seem very profound. Hang with me.

In my previous post, I pointed to the importance of knowing yourself. You can't grow as a person or mature in your faith unless you understand your strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, gifts, qualities, etc.

In a similar way, I don't believe we can form strong friendships or relationships unless we know our friends. I think the characters of "Friends" got this.

The show plays into the quirks and eccentricities of each character. Everyone knows that Monica is obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness and organization and that Chandler makes inappropriate jokes when he feels uncomfortable. It's common knowledge that Joey generally takes a few extra seconds to get the joke and that Phoebe is just plain weird. It's even more obvious that Ross and Rachel are destined to end up together.

The friends of "Friends" knew all this very well. They embraced the strengths of each other and recognized present weaknesses. They could predict how each person would respond to certain situations and knew how to approach each other with problems.

Shouldn't we follow the same example? There are many things the friends did that I would not recommend (leaving a baby alone in an apartment for example). But I do think they had the friend thing down. I suppose, then, that the show is very aptly named.