Lately I’ve been hearing from an old friend with increased frequency. We have known one another since the mid-1970s, and we have been through a lot together: her divorce, my midlife marriage, the deaths of her mother and my father. We have moved across state lines, gotten through graduate school, and bemoaned our aging bodies. We talk more often when one of us is in crisis mode, and this time it’s her turn. She has recently ended a seven-year relationship with a man she loved. After yet another middle-of-the-day phone call, I am left to wonder: What I can really do for my friend? Is listening enough?