Some FRIENDSHIPS are like perfect cactus flowers... unexplainably beautiful... indescribably exquisite... comforting and nurturing yet common like macaroni and cheese... 

Taylor Hill came by my house for a visit today.  His house is three thousand miles on the other side of North America from where I live in San Diego, but the telephone visit on this late-spring evening was as immediate, as real, as much appreciated as if we had settled in for a good talk before a roaring fire on a winter day in New England.