in friendship—the supposedly worthless and inferior state whose mention should crush us at the end of a date—we bring our highest and noblest virtues. Here we are patient, encouraging, tolerant, funny, and, most of all, kind. We expect a little less and therefore, by extension, forgive infinitely more. We do not presume that we will be fully understood and so treat failings lightly and humanely. We don’t imagine that our friends should admire us without reserve, sticking by us whatever we do, and so we put in effort and behave, pleasing ourselves as well as our companions along the way. We
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