Platonic Relationships, Part II: Strange Bedfellows

Sometimes, we have to cooperate with people we wouldn’t necessarily pick—people who have very different worldviews or work styles, people with whom we have nothing in common, or people we consider jerks. While this gets a lot of play in comedies, and as a setup for romance, it’s used a lot less as a source of serious conflicts. On a macro level, this tends to happen with political causes. I remember when I lived in Seattle, several First Nations tribes banded together with an evangelical Christian group to lobby against allowing slot machines in grocery stores. I can only imagine what that joint strategy meeting was like. On a more personal level, there are random roommates (in areas with a high cost of living, people frequently have to join forces with complete strangers just so they can afford housing), coworkers, neighbours, friends-of-friends, or situations with a power imbalance where one party doesn’t have a choice except to be friendly to another. How the characters handle these situations can be very revealing, as well as complicating the main plot and providing opportunities for character growth. We may not love these situations in real life, but in fiction, they’re a gold mine. [image error]