Outlining Ten Desires of Friendship in this self-help volume, THE FRIENDSHIP KEY, Dr. Sedhoff applies the principles to everything from tending one’s self and one’s closest companions to how one treats neighbors in other countries.
“Suppose you have not respected others, abused them, perhaps stolen from them, or constantly annoyed or angered them in some way. When times were dire could we really count on the people we disrespected?” Probably not. And therein lies the kernel of truth underlying Dr. Sedhoff’s ambitious THE FRIENDSHIP KEY to Lasting Peace, United Communities, Stronger Relationships, Equality, and a Better Job! The book endeavors to explain why human relationships–and the world in general–often don’t seem to be working these days. In an age of internet friends, followers and frenemies, it seems people have lost the ability to create and maintain genuine friendship in real life. According to the author, in order to experience a sense of true friendship, humans need to feel a sense of sameness and feel valued, noticed, appreciated, heard, approved of, respected, cared for, supported, and protected.
THE FRIENDSHIP KEY fascinatingly offering insights around traditional beliefs, like enemies are those different from ourselves and therefore not to be trusted. It provides a strong exploration of the nature of individual Inner Beasts and what occurs when people’s Inner Beasts are allowed free rein. The material especially shines when applying concepts of fostering friendship to business structures, which should always contribute positively to local/worldwide communities, as opposed to feeding off them like leeches (and that goes double for government structures).
It is noteworthy that in sections pertaining to romantic partnerships, the author endeavors to be inclusive of heterosexual and same sex relationships, though, in terms of wisdom shared around gender, some material reads a bit dated and overly binary. (i.e. males protect and provide; females nurture). While there’s truth here, gender has never been this black/white, and is especially not so in contemporary times. However, the exploration of various forms of slavery are brilliant. With more than half of American families breaking up/re-coupling and average relationships lasting seven years or less, with businesses as well as nations succumbing to the weight of crippling debt, leaving vast swaths of the population unemployed, with loneliness, depression and suicide running rampant (interesting fact: the United Kingdom has created an entire department with a Minister of Loneliness to combat this worldwide epidemic!), THE FRIENDSHIP KEY makes good on the title’s promise, offering simple, yet comprehensive keys, to helping humankind out of a self-created mess.
THE FRIENDSHIP KEY to Lasting Peace, United Communities, Stronger Relationships, Equality, and a Better Job! offers practical and inventive solutions on how to genuinely connect–to ourselves, others and the environment. In fact, some of the ideas in the book are so profound, readers are likely to go looking for whatever else author Dr. Winfried Sedhoff has written.
~Cristina Salat for IndieReader