Friending policies

I've been doing a lot of sorting through lists of people who're friends of friends, and adding them to my friends list. The criteria for friending are: I think you're genuinely caring, and I am not terrified that you'll laugh at me or stab me in the back if you wander over to my journal. To my friends list total, I've added: 3 people. And I don't think that's paranoid, quite honestly.

I want to be loved, not just liked. Liking will get me a nice smile. Love will get me people who call me and genuinely show an interest in me. Love will buy me just a little bit more certainty that I can trust you with painful things.

If I didn't add people to my list, it was because I was sure that the people in question might take a mild interest in me, but not genuinely care. (Lots of old alums who looked nice, but again, why should they care about me?) Even amongst my friends' list, I filter pretty tightly, so that it's really only a handful of people who see me at my worst; the reasoning is that if you don't comment and don't ask to be there, you probably don't have enough interest to follow through when the going gets ugly. That way, I never have to fear being rejected.

Twisty reasoning, I guess. But I'd much rather play it safer than not.