Friendship, According to Lewis

"Notice that Friendship thus repeats on a more individual and less social necessary level the character of the Companionship which was its matrix. The Companionship was between people who were doing something together - hunting, studying, painting, or what you will. The Friends will still be doing something together, but something more inward, less widely shared and less easily defined; still hunters, but of some immaterial quarry; still collaborating, but in some work the world does not, or not yet, take account of; still travelling companions, but on a diferent kind of journey. Hence we picture lovers face to face but Friends side by side; their eyes look ahead.

That is why those pathetic people who simply "want friends" can never make any. The very condition of having Friends is that we should want something else besides Friends. Where the truthful answer to the question Do you see the same truth? would be "I see nothing and I don't care about the truth; I only want a Friend," no Friendship can arise - though Affection of course may. There would be nothing for the Friendship to be about; and Friendship must be about something, even if it were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow travellers."

--C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

I think this passage can be used to clarify my definition of "friends". (Also why things like Facebook and Myspace are therefore rediculous to me in the naming of one's contacts.) And it is just a really good book and ought to be read more than it is.