A reader writes:
Doesn't anyone read Aristotle anymore? "Friendship is modern"? Really? Try Nicomachean Ethics books VIII and IX. Or, why true friendship is the discovery a "virtuous other" who augments your rationality, is a source of pleasure and is an enduring resource through all of the trials of life. There's also the very helpful distinction between friends of utility, pleasure and virtue (in contrast to your undistinguished description of friendship).