Importance of Friendship

This is a follow-up on an earlier post on the value and importance of having good friends

Good friends contribute to your health and well-being. By Madeline Vann, MPH Medically reviewed by Pat F. Bass III, MD, MPH

Friends and Well-Being

A number of studies have highlighted the importance of friends and good relationships to health, Here are some of the findings:

Studies show that socially engaged adults’ age more successfully than adults who are not as socially engaged. According to surveys of women over age 60, those who are socially engaged and visit with friends and family throughout the week are happier as they age.

Friends can help you achieve your weight and fitness goals. Encouragement and just sharing goes a long way to boosting your willpower. Happiness is catching. If you have a friend you consider to be happy, you are more likely to be happy and you are able to spread that happiness to the people around you.

A study of 4,739 adults who participated in the Framingham Heart Study between 1983 and 2003 showed that people tend to cluster into happy or unhappy groups, and happiness appears to spread not just to those immediately inside the social group, but to their contacts as well. Having happy friends who live less than a mile away was an especially powerful predictor of happiness. Building a circle of friends makes you happy. People who see themselves as a leader in their social circle are happier than those who see themselves as outsiders — another reason why actively building relationships instead of waiting for the phone to ring is important.

Friends lessen grief. A series of interviews with parents who lost a baby during pregnancy or immediately after birth showed that those who felt they were receiving social support from friends or family were better able to cope with their grief. The most welcome forms of support were simply being physically present, listening, and offering sympathy, encouragement, and practical help, such as making meals or funeral arrangements. In contrast, feeling socially alone tends to worsen grief.

Being social boosts your immune system. Being socially engaged leads to more positive emotions, which in turn may actually boost your body’s immune system and reduce the physical signs of stress, say health experts. The Friends You Choose Make a Difference

While it is possible for one happy person to spread happiness to their friends, the reverse is also true — a mildly or chronically depressed friend can bring you down as well. It helps to have a diverse group of friends to lessen this impact.

It's also important to be a good friend yourself, providing others with as many of the benefits of friendship (infectious happiness, social support, someone to confide in, food in times of crisis) as you can. It feels good to help others, and that only adds to your own happiness.

Choosing Your Friend

This is from a post by  Patrick Mathieu  whose work I admire and read.

(Today, I want to ask you lots of introspective questions and give you lots to think about.  After all – that’s what friends do for one another!)

What does friendship mean to you? What kind of friend are you to the people you care about? What kind of friends do you surround yourself with?

For many people, friendships “just happen”.  People come in and out of our lives all the time; and some of them stick around as friends.

Jim Rohn once said “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

I want you to think about your friends and consider that quote. Next, I want you to think about the path you are on in your quest to Choose the Life You Want. Is there a fit?

Are your friends firmly in your corner, supporting you through your evolution?

Or do you have the kind of friends who want you to stay the way you used to be in “the good ole days”?

Do they look at you now and say: “Wow!  You’ve really changed! I hardly recognize you anymore!” (said with enthusiasm)?

Or do they look at you now and say “Wow… you’ve really changed! I hardly recognize you anymore!” (said with judgement, suspicion and disapproval)?

As adults, it can be very scary to think about facing the disapproval of old friends.  But that fear serves no one.  Keeping someone in your life just because they’ve been there for ages, doesn’t serve either of you if you are moving in different directions.  People change, people grow and sometimes friends grow apart.

I want to leave you with a quote from Marianne Williamson.  Please note the section I’ve bolded.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

50th Season for Metro Theater in Vancouver

Congratulations to  Metro Theatre on the start of their 50th season. For 50 years the actors, producers, directors of this theatre have entertained thousands of people. They still are one of the best, and cheapest nights our for live Theatre in Vancouver. I consider the opportunities I get to go to Metro Theatre to be one of the highlights of my year.  Metro Theatre has been in Vancouver for 50 years and that says something about the quality of the performances given by this Theatre. 

I have never been disappointed by a play that I have seen at this theatre. So I am encouraging all of you who enjoy live theatre to make a point of going to see the first show of this their 50th season, (or any show of the season), if you can.  

If you live in the Vancouver area,  Metro Theatre has a wonderful season upcoming, if you are going to visit Vancouver then I recommend you try to take in a play. You will be entertained.  To get tickets phone the Box Office  604-266-719. Ticket prices Adult $25, Seniors and Students $20

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Metro Theatre is proud to announce its 50th season with something for everyone! The first play of the season is:
Relatively Speaking  by Alan Ayckbourn,  Directed by -John Crittenden

This production will run from:
August 25th—September 22nd  ( Thursday, Friday and Saturdays only with two Sunday Matinee's on Sept 9^th and 16^th) Curtain 8PM, Matinees 2PM

Relatively Speaking opened at the Duke Of York’s Theatre, London, on 29 March 1967. The majority of critics fell over themselves to praise the production. True, it was considered insubstantial and slight, but this did not stop the plaudits for the quality of the piece; Alan’s dialogue, Nigel Patrick’s direction and the cast were rewarded with high praise. Alan’s fortunes had turned and the play would continue to generate excellent reviews in the coming weeks as the periodicals were published.

"I regard Relatively Speaking as a comedy. The plot is devious but doesn't really fulfil those desperate and anarchical requirements that would qualify it as a farce." (Personal correspondence,  Alan  Ayckbourn , 16 January 1986)

Here are extracts from many of the major reviews of the London premiere of the play.

Daily Express (Herbert Kretzmer)

Almost continuous laughter last night augers well for the commercial future of this cleverly judged comedy. It is bound to attract a large middlebrow audience and will deserve such success.

Daily Mail (Peter Lewis)

Unashamed, artificial, laugh-a-line comedy with no message or significance whatsoever…. Unlike most clockwork comedies, this one clicks and fizzes to the very end.

Daily Telegraph (W.A. Darlington)

If you want to see how brilliant light-comedy acting and production can make a charming evening’s entertainment out of a basically silly play, go to the Duke Of York’s and see Relatively Speaking…. Where then, lies the trouble? Simply in the fact that the author has to labour like an old-fashioned convict to prevent any of his characters from speaking the one line of sensible explanation that would clear up the mistake and bring the play to a premature end.

Evening Standard (Milton Shulman)

Slight, tenuous and too fragile for rational analysis. Relatively Speaking emerges as the funniest trick of the season.

Metro is next to the Arthur Lang Bridge, Vancouver and there is plenty of easy parking.

One of the charms of the Metro Theatre is the Metro Lounge, where after the show, the cast always shows up to meet and talk to the audience members who are in the Lounge. So be sure to visit the The Metro Lounge after the show, meet your friends, and to meet the cast. 

Adult Truths for August

1 Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong. 

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger. 

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font. 

5. How on earth are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? 

6. Was learning cursive really necessary? 

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood. 

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died. 

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind-of tired. 

10. Bad decisions make good stories. 

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again. 

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to. 

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer    when they call. 

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well. 

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Light than Kay. 

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option. 

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger. 

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said? 

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters! 

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time. 

23. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.