Being silly with people you trust is serious business. That’s where the best friendships are built.

Nonsense between people is a form of proof. You can only be ridiculous in front of someone you are fairly sure will not use it against you, which means the silliness is not a break from the friendship, it is the friendship demonstrating itself. Groups that can be stupid together have usually earned something that formal closeness never quite reaches.

Protect the pointless parts of your friendships rather than treating them as what gets cut when you are busy. The long bad joke, the game with no purpose, the conversation about nothing. Those hours are doing more work than they look like they are.