Being shameless in thinking, then talking, about male friendship because it is important. Make room for friendship in your life. Make a federal case out of it.

To realize the importance the imagination could have in friendship, to understand its immense power for bringing us together in a way.

Frequently, friendship is represented as something too steadily pleasant, or in certain of the masterpieces of the past -- Aristotle and Cicero, for example -- as pervaded by a constant mutual understanding and a gentle calm. Friendship is also an emotional relationship, with involvement that can get hot at times, like any other deep involvement with a person.

Our society seems to say that a real man needs and wants nobody.

After all, what is ''a man'' nowadays? Somebody who stands alone, independent of all ties.