Why I need two old friends with whom I rarely meet?

I have two friends with whom I rarely meet (once every month, once every two months). I can safely say that we meet rarely.

Why they are so important to me?

• I have friends with whom I talk a lot; meet often, talk a lot, see each other often; when we meet there’s hardly anything new to learn from this; sure, it’s a nice friendship, but if I do anything which is out of order, they get used to this and don’t tell me; we accustom with each other faults and learn to live with them; on the other hand, if I meet a person very rarely, it’s much easier to spot things which are out of order;
• If there’s anything I don’t think I’m missing is an original approach; I tend not to do things in the old fashioned way; keeping a long-term relationship like this helps me better understand what is typical and at least acknowledge why a thing is better or worse than others; so, in a strange way, an atypical relationship with old friends helps me have (or at least understand how it’s built) a typical life; these old friends are a drop of conformism in my world (which to me is perceived as being) of originality;
• Sure, they’re important for other reasons, also; that’s why they’re called friends;

… and everybody lived happily ever after.