"The condition which high friendship demands is ability to do without it . . . It has seemed to me lately more possible than I knew to carry a friendship greatly, on one side, without due correspondence [reciprocity] on the other. Why should I encumber myself with regrets that the receiver is not capacious? It never troubles the sun that some of its rays fall wide and vain into ungrateful space, and only a small part on the reflecting planet. Let your greatness educate the crude and cold companion. If he is unequal [in affection], he will presently pass away; but thou art enlarged by thy own shining."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Photo: A single aspen overlooks the mountain vista; Oh-Be-Joyful Pass Trail, near Crested Butte, CO, October 1, 2011
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