“Friendship is a problem,” host and producer Josh Long tells co-host Sara in this week’s episode of Good and Decent. Lately, Josh has been feeling like his friendships have suffered — and he’s not alone. Almost one third of young adults feel that they have no best friends. What keeps two people bonded together over the course of a life? Josh and Sara turn to three Grotto stories for inspiration on the topic of friendship.
In the first, a video gamer with a large following shares his experience of friendship transcending the boundaries of space and time. Bearded Blevins uses his Twitch platform as a space to share messages of hope and love. He has gathered a community of in-person gamers and their interactions reach more than 40,000 people who connect with him via the chat box on his streaming platform. The connections they’ve established have come through video games, but are no less real.
The second story is of Pilar Amado, a woman of color who started rock climbing with a desire to find community. When she discovered there wasn’t a space for climbers of color, she founded Sending in Color so others felt welcome. Josh and Sara wonder if all friendships need shared hobbies, or if shared values are enough to sustain a lasting friendship.
Josh introduces one more (bonus!) Grotto story about inter-generational friendship — a story of three wild turkey hunters in central Michigan. Their experience in the woods creates deep bonds with the land — and each other.
In this episode, Josh and Sara invite us to take a deep dive into our own friendships — the gratitude we have for them, the necessity of these people in our life, and the ways we can continue to foster the depth of friendship we crave in our lives.
How are your friendships? What do your friends need from you, and you from them, in this season of life?
