My experience, Child and Lush, conforms pretty much to Tolkien's stance with one exception: on-line friendships in which relation is mind-to-mind and we do not see each other's bodies. Maybe that's a male thing. Being the intensely emotional guy I am, I've had only a few incidents of friendship with women, in person, and they all turned out the same: sabotaged by either one or the other's (or both persons') inability to control our emotions, OR a misunderstanding on one's part that the other's affections were not romantic, just affectionate. And Lush, it doesn't end after another 35 or 40 years. So I think Tolkien was right on.
Oh, and I appreciate the mention regarding Celeborn and 'old wives' tales'. That was well said.
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