Infatuation w/o Longing
Caring w/o Possession
Love w/o Obsession
Imagination w/o Expectation
Togetherness w/o Obligation.

Was Plato there at Socrates’ death-bed?
Did Aristotle discuss the occasion with Alexander of Macedonia?
Was Joseph there when his son, Yeshua was condemned?
Was Saint Paul but a Roman spy?
How are both Good and Evil aspects of the sacred?
How does a child come into the world?

It is *not* through anything a man does to a woman, or what a woman does with her womb. Or, what they do with each other.
Everything that follows, though well-described and measured, remains a total mystery.
Neither knows how they would both manage to re-emerge and to carry on throughout history as one in another,
participating in a future they would not be a part of.

Passion w/o Lust
Nakedness w/o Defilement
Dignity w/o Undue Hardship
A Fullness w/o Remainder
Compromise w/o Loss
Authority w/o Power
Usefulness w/o Exploitation
Service w/o Slavery
Gain w/o Safeguarding
Success w/o Envy
Selfishness w/o Betrayal
Wealth w/o Avarice

There is still up and down and left and right and front and back and today and tomorrow.
Some things are unavoidable.

This is about noumenal things, not any obfuscated esoterics.

This is but a short list on the sublime nature of Friendship --
like the space between an exhale and an inhale. Liminal.
An involved escape.
Transcendent.
The bedrock of “Us” — me with you ...
And me with me, and you with you.