My grandfather used to often say, "there are no strangers in this life, only friends you haven't met." When he passed away, I was truly amazed at how many people he had met and befriended. It served as a wake-up call to me--for my generation the difference between "friending" someone and "befriending" someone is so great, and I am afraid I don't focus nearly as much on the latter.

As an aside on the article, Chuck Klosterman has a very humorous analysis of the "I'm not here to make friend's" meme in 'Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs' (http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Cocoa-Puffs-Manifesto/dp/074...)