The days of summer have kept me from writing much of late. Who wants to sit and write when daylight lasts so long and it’s dry in the Northwest? A word processor seems a poor friend when compared to evening strolls and ice-cream in the park with my wife. Lately there, miraculously, is always a good excuse to be away from my desk. I love summers.
This last weekend reminded me of how much I love summers. Even more, it reminded me of how much I love friends. It is easy these days to forget the value of friends. I mean there is so much busyness and noise in a man’s life that it is easy to be friendless. It’s easy to look at the forest and miss the trees. It’s easy be distracted by all the responsibilities and worries of life; it’s easy to by distracted by the toys. It’s easy to think friends are what you check on Facebook.
This last weekend was different. A long time friend asked me to go fishing with him. This might not seem much but you lack the back story. I grew up in Alaska and the Northwest. My childhood was formed by rivers and lakes; Zebcos and hip boots. There was the time I almost fell head first into the white water rapids that would have swept me under a log jam to surely drown, and that time when dad almost walked right into a brown bear. I grew up outdoors and I remember landing my first fish while everyone believed it to be a snag; I still think I am right when everyone doubts me. That fish might have made me the resilient man I am today. Sadly though, I have not fished in many years prior to last weekend. Life got in the way. I had jobs to do, money to worry about, toys to distract. If not for my friend, fishing would still be something that I used to do. That is the value of a friend. They can remind you of who you are.
They can also remind you of who you want to be. The same friend joined me for a guy’s night out to watch Inception. It was surprising to me how quickly we fell into long debates about the meaning of a good story; of who were the good guys and who were the bad. Sci-fi is a shared passion, not because we are enamored with technology or we like the action. No, we both want to be inspired by a story. A good story can inspire you to be a better soul. A friend can help you be one.
It has been my experience when a person faces hard times or succumbs to the easy path of rebellion, the first thing to go is their dependability. They don’t show up for events and they stop caring about others. They become the centers of their own universe and friends become people they used to hang out with. I know this has been true of me; I am guilty of it. It is easy for me to become a slave to the grind of life. There is always one more paycheck to worry about or one more thing I must do. The simple peace of walking a river out in the middle of nowhere—the peace of silence becomes a luxury and unimportant. Friends become just people I see on the weekends in passing.
This weekend was different though; I was reminded of the true value of a friend by a friend
Ditto!
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