Friendship

From the old site:

The depth of a friendship may in fact be little more than a measure of non-disparity in the perceptions of the two people involved.

This comment came after some musing on situations where I might consider someone a better friend than they consider me or vice versa. My suggestion being that deep friendships are a product of both parties having the same view of the relationship.

I said at the time, and maintain today, that this would likely not stand up to scrutiny. However, I also still maintain that it makes for an interesting opening statement, and that consideration of this starting point could lead to some interesting thoughts.

If you don't buy the correlation with depth, what about the ability of a friendship to last? Do friendships tend to last because of a shared understanding of the relationship? Or not last due to a disparity in that understanding?