Friends

I was exchanging E-mail with an old friend this morning , who i have not seen in person for several year , but we have always keep in touch. I am talking 40 years and we have had some up and down in our relationship during that time.
I have another friend who i have also know 40 years , we grew up in the bank together and we too have had ups and downs ,but at the end of the day we still see each other and play a little golf .
The oldest friend i have is a guy i grew up with . I only see him at class reunions , he has some issues which he has struggle with his whole life . He is not always house broke if you know what i mean , but he is always the same guy .
I formed some special relationship at work over the years . The people i work with and for during my career were important , but i am not sure how you hang on to all those relationships.
I have more recent friend who i have spent a lot of time with the past few years , several years ago his wife and mind had a fight and it made it difficult to maintain the level of activity which we had once enjoyed , but we continued the best we could . We are now on different sides of an issue and I don't like what i am seeing .
I note the word from an old Bob Seger song she used me and i used her , but no body cared. The question for all of us : is friendship a convenient way to make thing happen in business and socially or is it or should it be as Bob Seger sees it ?