C.S. Lewis argues that it takes a community of people to get to know an individual person. Reflecting on his own friendships, he observed that some aspects of one of his friend’s personality were brought out only through interaction with a second friend. That meant if he lost the second friend, he lost the part of the first friend that was otherwise invisible.
“By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.”
Prayer (by Keller)