Gold ships and silver ships

A line from a novel I read over 20 years ago remains stuck in my mind:

"There are gold ships and silver ships, but the best ship is friendship."

Corny, isn't it? And I don't even know if it's a well-known saying, or just something the author Joseph Heller made up. But I've been thinking about friendships and what they mean to me. Apparently, not a whole lot, because I don't really have a large circle of friends...and, as the recent high school graduation anniversary reminded me, I certainly don't have very many longtime friends, not from my school days, at any rate. Part of that is to be expected, I suppose, and not really specific to me. People tend to drift apart once they enter new spheres of life. When you enter university, when you start out in a job, and then again a new job, when you marry, when you have children, every new sphere brings new relationships, most often at the expense of older ones.
A lot depends on your personal definition (or, as I like to say as a card-carrying constructivist, your personal construction) of friendship. I suppose your relationships with other people could be plotted on a continuum that could have the poles of "enemy" vs. "friend", or of "completely indifferent person" vs. "really close and intimate friend", with loose acquaintances somewhere in between.
Another dimension is likely to be your personality. Are you an extravert who is outgoing and sociable, if perhaps a little superficial, someone who likes to have many friends around? Or rather an introvert who prefers few but deep friendships but who is just as happy not to have his friends around all the time?

When I look at my own preferences, I find that I want to be friends with many, but I also want to be left alone; I relish the lively exchange of ideas with other people, but I admit to preferring the company of a good book to a crowd of friends.

In all honesty, I also find that most friendships can turn boring all too soon. Conversations with longtime friends tend to be predictable; if you haven't seen them in a while and then meet them again, you mentally "check off" the relevant topics of discussion (family, job etc. ) but rarely cover new ground. But I realize that, much as marriage, friendship needs work, needs input. You can't expect your friends to be there for you if you never are there for them, even if just for listening. It has to be a two-way street.

So, to return to the trite phrase from the beginning, it may be that true and deep friendship is better than any gold or silver ship could be. But you have to work to keep that ship afloat; if you're not prepared to do that, you may as well leave the ship in the harbor. ((I think I now have flogged the ship metaphor to death) )