MAN IS A SOCIAL BEING, BUT AT HIS OWN RISK

 Man is a social being," stated Aristotle in his time, and the truth is that no one can deny it; when we are alone for a long time, our mind stops working properly, getting lost in the glimpses of madness.  That is why prisoners who are left in solitary confinement suffer from mental and physical problems, as well as from suicidal ideation.  But it's also true that our relationships with others often break us. Not only the love relationships that at the beginning make us touch the sky with our hand sometimes end up defeating us, but also the work relationships which, if we are excellent employees, provoke the competition of others.  The same goes for our friendships, especially those of middle age, when we begin to look back to see what we have achieved in life. If by any chance our life seems to be more successful than others, in our most difficult moments there will be verbal aggressions and hidden smiles coming our way.  Such is life; envy and competition transform our social life into a battlefield. I don't think I'm wrong when I say that our friends at middle-age are different from those of our adolescence. With the passage of time everything changes, even the friends we make; and the only response to this change will be, once again, adaptation. Like the Athenian philosopher stated, we will continue having friends,

but these will be a different kind of friends: with them we will not share the innermost part of our being because we know that, should we share it, it runs the risk of becoming fractured.