Hospitality

friends have such a powerful influence over us

we experience in their presence the shock of recognition

the understanding that they too do indeed know

some of the same deep, secret, joyous places as we do

places of such sublimity 

that they far surpass our ability to describe them when we speak

but which we can nevertheless describe well enough to know

that our friends know them as intimately as we thought only we knew them

this explains why we love our friends

and the hold they have over us: 

they are a reflection of ourselves

and consequently, a confirmation of our existence

this is why our friends' hold over us is so powerful,

and this is why we sink with them when they founder

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