If our friend is radioactive during conflict, we might resign ourselves to the fact that the friendship won’t plunge into the dynamic safety that accompanies honest communication. But there are lower rungs of intimacy that may be apropos. Not every friend has to be a best friend. Maybe we expect less from them, share less of ourselves, and compartmentalize the friendship to what feels most fulfilling about it. “Sometimes the best way to manage a relationship is to have less of it,” Jeff Simpson told me. I’ve coined the term “low-dose friend” to acknowledge that, like medicine, some friends are
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