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Confucius once said "Have no friend not equal to yourself." When I heard (well, read) that anelect for the first time, I immediately liked it. Ignoring the relation to social class it has, which might very well have been the primary meaning, what with Confucius being all into "keep with your own kind" type of stuff, I liked the idea that if someone doesn't hold themselves to the standards you hold yourself to, then begone with them.

But then I started thinking. Why? Is it because my standards are the most true or virtuous ones? I doubt it. I've never considered myself wise, its why I always seek knowledge and wisdom from my books. I mean, heck, who am I to judge what is equal to me anyways? It'd be hypocritical. I always hate when others consider a job beneath them, how much worse would it be for me to say a person is beneath my friendship?

So basically, back to square one here, how do I tell if one is equal to myself? Wealth is unimportant to me, physical traits seem unrelated to friendship to me, and mental faculty is hard to compare.

So, my standards again, right? If someone would do something that I deem wrong, I shouldn't consider them a friend. The problem is, a lot of things I don't do, I don't think are evil. Ignoring things I find repulsive or am otherwise inherently (okay, probably more likely socially geared against for most of these things) and getting to the things that I actually make a conscious decision about, I'm left with so few options. I am monogamous? But what does it matter? I'd go with religion, but I'm an agnostic, so I don't care there.

What I'm left with, is I don't steal, cheat, kill, or vandalize. So, that's what this quote is about? Don't have criminal friends? It makes sense, but why the anelect?

I don't know, I originally started off with a goal in mind for this rant/brainstorm, but around paragraph two it kinda went off in another direction. I guess I'll leave you with my favorite words of wisdom from the philosopher of the East:

"Only the wise of the highest degree and the fools of the lowest degree cannot be made to change."

I may be unwise, I may be a fool, but I'm at least chasing after my wisdom.