We were at a community festival. With a few minutes of free time. Spontaneity hit and we started yammering.

“I’ve lost a lot of friends the past few years,” he soon said, matter-of-factly.

I nodded. And, our conversation about politics and religion ended in agreement.

Did we agree that politics and religion are divisive? Sure, right along with aging, sex preferences, and brain waves. Friends come and go. Mostly go, after the age of 25 years, according to a study from Oxford University’s Department of Experimental Psychology and the Aalto University School of Science in Finland.

Experts don’t know whether the human brain shapes our social environment or if the environment shapes our brains, but a 2018 experiment shows parallel neural activity between friends, suggesting “that friends are exceptionally similar to one another in terms of how they perceive, interpret, and react to the world around them.”

What can I do with this information? Spectate. Debate. Or, discover.

“Every stumble, every loss, every disappointment, every tinge of pain can be used to break through the barriers of the problem and discover what belongs to wisdom and Love.”—from science & religion to God