With Whom Do We Spend Our Time?

"Just as water will conform to the shape of the vessel that contains it, so will a man follow the good and evil of his companions." - Imagawa no Ryoshun, The Regulations of Imagawa Ryoshun

How carefully do we pay attention to our friends and associates?

This is something that we often pay attention to in our youth - often at the insistence of our parents, no doubt - but as time and independence comes, we tend to note this less and less.

Some of this is simply forced on us - in adulthood, we often spend a great deal of time at work with individuals with whom we would probably not otherwise spend time - but some of this is perhaps caused by the fact that with less time, we simply become more concerned with spending time with anyone rather than being as selective as we used to be about with whom we spend our time.

But the reality is the same: we most often tend to adopt the mores and attitudes of those around us.

Do we pay attention to this as we should? Are we becoming better - or worse - by the associations we spend our time with - and are we as conscious of them as we should be?