I’m very loyal to the concept of friendship. I have a small cadre of “best friends” who’ve been in and out of my life—some for many decades. And I can always get back to an easy place with them. To expose my dark side (aim the rotten tomatoes now), I actually find that I “talk behind their backs” quite a bit. That is to say I ridicule/mock their tragic flaws. And that’s not very friendly.
I’ve given lots of thought to this because it is a trait I desire to change in myself. And I don’t have the answer as to why I do this yet . . . the closest I can get to it is possibly a “humanizing” of folks whose relationships seem almost supernatural to me.
What makes a best friend? I can only say it’s just the easy flow of conversation when you’ve been apart for a long time. It’s as if you fall back into a rhythm that is natural and mutually rewarding. I will do anything a “best friend” asks (assuming it’s legal, of course); and I’d expect the same from the other direction.