Marriage is the highest state of friendship. If happy it lessens our cares by dividing them at the same time that it doubles our pleasures by mutual participation.
I feel like a lot of the female relationships I see on TV or in movies are in some way free of the kind of jealousy and anxiety and posturing that has been such a huge part of my female friendships which I hope lessens a little bit with age.
The biggest lesson from Africa was that life's joys come mostly from relationships and friendships not from material things. I saw time and again how much fun Africans had with their families and friends and on the sports fields they laughed all the time.