Pontifex Minimus
Friendcouple Naomi and Dave got seen last night. How very good it is to maintain relationships over time. We just stepped right back into important and real conversation right away. Wonderful.
There's a sort of person who, when they drive by, bridges just spontaneously burst into flames all around them...If such people see renewed contact with lovely human beings like happened last night, which such people surely must from time to time, you'd think they would get a clue there's something wrong with their current abutment abatement program.
The whole friend thing turns out to be worth it--not the Friends thing, being united in a common haircut and a common conspiracy to never hold one another to a higher standard--but the real friends things: it's worth it. The patience is worth it; the tried and failed attempt at *that* joke is worth it; the not-about-you-ness of it is worth it; the long prayers and late evenings because that's when you can get together and that's what needs doing, is worth it.
Of course, I suppose many never have coherent or caring relationships ever really modeled for them. Sigh. Hence Big Brothers, adoption, mentoring programs, neighborhoods, letting people board ahead of you on the bus, and all of that.
But we, my family and I, have had many great, and many good, examples of how to make and keep a relationship, and for that, on an afternoon when I'm so tired I can't lay down or sit or stand up or walk, I'm grateful. If you get a chance, and you come to some watershed event in somebody's life, if you can't build a bridge over a river, then at least throw a log across a brook.
There's a sort of person who, when they drive by, bridges just spontaneously burst into flames all around them...If such people see renewed contact with lovely human beings like happened last night, which such people surely must from time to time, you'd think they would get a clue there's something wrong with their current abutment abatement program.
The whole friend thing turns out to be worth it--not the Friends thing, being united in a common haircut and a common conspiracy to never hold one another to a higher standard--but the real friends things: it's worth it. The patience is worth it; the tried and failed attempt at *that* joke is worth it; the not-about-you-ness of it is worth it; the long prayers and late evenings because that's when you can get together and that's what needs doing, is worth it.
Of course, I suppose many never have coherent or caring relationships ever really modeled for them. Sigh. Hence Big Brothers, adoption, mentoring programs, neighborhoods, letting people board ahead of you on the bus, and all of that.
But we, my family and I, have had many great, and many good, examples of how to make and keep a relationship, and for that, on an afternoon when I'm so tired I can't lay down or sit or stand up or walk, I'm grateful. If you get a chance, and you come to some watershed event in somebody's life, if you can't build a bridge over a river, then at least throw a log across a brook.
posted by Mark at 6:45 PM
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