#37 

I do not wish to treat friendship daintily, but with roughest courage.  When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost- work but the solidest thing we know. -Emerson

I was student teaching with Caroline Allen 
in Auburn, Nebraska when I first found 
this glorious phrase, 
preparing to teach Emerson's "Self-Reliance,"
and I realized, like some pirate, that I had found 
his true treasure, essays on friendship and love, those transcendent ideas 
so difficult to grasp. 

catherinenglish 02-06-2013