This is a quote I just ran across that I'd like to apply to all of my friendships because I think it's a good mantra. It's meaning is quite different taken out of context and applied liberally to all relationships--I hope that Griffin & Sabine won't mind:
So many friendships spring up out of unusual circumstances and via chance--does that make them more ephemeral and weightless or does that make them even more valuable? In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the relationship between Tomas and Tereza was born of six improbable fortuities:
Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of a cup.
Is that how we should weigh friendships, pull out a piece of paper and add up the number of chance occurrences that led to the birth of the friendship? Hell no, we just do that in novels and to pass the time maybe when we've had too many drinks. How much better to take pleasure in each other, to occasionally borrow someone else's eyes, to give help when needed and receive support in times of trouble.