Besides Everything
One of the student speakers at graduation last night cited an interesting study recently reported in the New York Times. As Tara Parker-Pope puts it in her piece on the affects of friendship on long life, "Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone. The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared."
Wow.
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 4:48 PM
2 Comments:
It seems to me that you even when you are alone, you can be that friend for yourself. I know that when I come to the dreaded hill that led to one of my attempts at poetry, it seems steeper when I am tired or stressed.
Thanks Pesach. Glad to have you here.
I recently was looking through old posts and found your first comment - about YCQ, and Mr. C, and your brother.
It's hard but true. We need to be that friend for ourseves. Im ein ani li...
Something just popped in my mind, that I think you - in particular - may appreciate. It's from a commencement speech delivered by Mister Rogers (I've posted it in the past):
"Have you heard my favorite story that came from the Seattle Special Olympics? Well, for the 100-yard dash there were nine contestants, all of them so-called physically or mentally disabled. All nine of them assembled at the starting line and at the sound of the gun, they took off. But not long afterward one little boy stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry. The other eight children heard him crying; they slowed down, turned around and ran back to him. Every one of them ran back to him. One little girl with Down Syndrome bent down and kissed the boy and said, "This'll make it better." And the little boy got up and he the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully walked to the finish line. They all finished the race at the same time. And when they did, everyone in that stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered for a long, long, time. People who were there are still telling the story with great delight. And you know why. Because deep down, we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win too. Even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then."
The full text is here: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2002/june/060902c.html
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