Are true friendships possible? Seems like male-male always has latent competitive tension and female-male latent romantic tension. Female-female has ???
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'True friendship" as stand-in for "suppressing all other aspects of primate behaviour"? Probably not.
As in "friendship where attempts to take undue advantage are not made"? Totally. A question of respect.
Healthy competition exists, as do healthy boundaries.
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I have two very old friends left in this world. Most others either drifted apart or lost touch.
One is a woman. We had, and still have, a lot of sexual tension. Acted on and dropped immediately years ago. Never a problem since.
Mutual respect. Neither tried to take advantage.
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Other is a guy. Mutually competitive, very different talents. Sort of pulley action going for a long while. Good times.
Problem is he lacks the ability to really respect anyone, and this has put our friendship on ice in recent years.
He needs to grow up, but dunno if he will.
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Also, I have had, and still have, a lot of friendships with older people. No real competition with a 50 y.o. guy. No sexual tension with a pensioner.
Those friendships tend to feel especially wholesome, if you can communicate across the generation gap.
There's something about youth that makes old people shine. And the many benefits of having older, wiser friends should be obvious.
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