Ah! "close friendships"- I suddenly figured it out. I was thinking in terms of ships closing... :)

I think that we all have acquaintances that we wouldn't miss if they were gone. It certainly was true for me in the first 3/4 of my life (assuming that I won't live until I'm 130 or so). Since I've lived in Alaska, though, there are scads of people in my life that I treasure to one degree or another. And then, there are people I would miss achingly- the older I get, the more I have of those.