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🫂 An Existential Guide to Making Friends

'People are creatures that rot if they are alone. To be human is to be an animal that needs witnesses.' Friendship, this piece insists, is not natural — it's ritual, risk and occasional miracle. With mordant wit and sacred tenderness it reframes friendship as the art of being interrupted:

Danu Poyner

· 1 minute

An existential guide to making friends
theshadowedarchive.substack.com

'People are creatures that rot if they are alone. To be human is to be an animal that needs witnesses.' Friendship, this piece insists, is not natural — it's ritual, risk and occasional miracle. With mordant wit and sacred tenderness it reframes friendship as the art of being interrupted: by others, by the world, by grace. 'Every friend you've ever had has wronged you… This is the contract hidden in the handshake.'

Written by

Danu Poyner

Danu is a writer and founder of Grokkist, a learning community in the deepest sense. His work centres on coherence, curiosity, and helping people make sense of themselves in relation to ideas, experience, and one another.

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