Conversation

A blessing is group of friends whose friendship is firm enough that it cannot be undone by vigorous disagreement expressed frankly. I don't mean intentional provocation and certainly not contempt, or condescension, or insult. Just a willingness to engage with others without the need to be constantly on guard censoring yourself out of fear of giving offense. The Inklings are one of the groups I would love to have been able to overhear when fully engaged. Anecdotal Evidence refers to another more eminent gathering from an earlier time:

…. To be clubbable, for [Samuel] Johnson, was to maintain sanity. He and Sir Joshua Reynolds founded The Club in 1764. It met weekly at The Turk’s Head on Gerrard Street in Soho. The original nine members included Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith. New members could be elected only by unanimous vote, and later additions included Boswell, Adam Smith and Edward Gibbon. Walter Jackson Bate called the club “the most remarkable assemblage of diverse talents that has ever met so frequently for the sole purpose of conversation.”