are we friends?

Friends. Would Oscar Wilde and I be friends? I think Oscar Wilde and I would be great friends if given the chance. Friendship is a tricky subject; the people in my life whom I consider friends are the ones who help me continually be the best individual I can. In the past couple months I have been forming new friendships and letting go of old ones, neither of which is ever easy. I have wracked myself trying to decide whom I really do want to be close with in my life and whom, quite frankly, I do not. I have reached the conclusion that if someone (friend or not) does not contribute to my life in a positive way, I have no interest in continuing that relationship. While many people contribute to my life in a positive way, my friends are, and always will be, in a class of their own. I believe Oscar Wilde and I would be friends because he believed very strongly in hedonism – a devotion to pleasure as a way of life. Throughout his works Wilde makes references to hedonism. When Jack is visiting Algernon in the city Algernon asks him what brings him and Jack replies “Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?” (Wilde, Oscar. The Importance 117). In the same way that Oscar Wilde saw no need for art to be anything but beautiful he saw no need for life to be anything but happy. I cannot say that I believe life is unconditionally happy, but I enjoy people who do. I have friends of all sorts and each one makes me happy and makes me better in a different way. I certainly have friends that keep my secrets and listen to me vent when I’m upset, I have friends that keep me in line and save me from bad decisions, I have friends that teach me new hobbies and send me good music, I have friends that enjoy the same hobbies I do, I have friends that help me understand homework problems, and I have friends that helped me realize that life isn’t as serious as I’d thought; I have friends who have taught me how to live. Oscar Wilde and I would have been friends because he appreciated the beauty and happiness in life.