Long term friendship
16/08/16 05:23
Cody the dog is an Australian Shepherd. Without a doubt his favorite activity is fetching. He will chase anything you throw. He loves to chase sticks that are thrown and will often go find a stick and drop it at the feet of anyone who will toss it for him. He also has a few well-worn tennis balls that quickly get slobbery and muddy from being thrown and returned in his mouth. He can stare so intently at the ball on the ground that it is nearly impossible to ignore him. When you raise your arm to throw, he is off and running. A frisbee is easy for him to catch, but his mouth is not very gentle. A frisbee has a short life of play with Cody before it is too chewed up and broken to fly well. He will catch a tennis ball in the air sometimes, and often catches it on the first bounce. When there are people around he is in his element bringing items to throw to them one at a time until everyone has thrown objects multiple times.
There is a device for flinging tennis balls that is made of plastic and has a handle on one end and a cup to hold the tennis ball on the other. It grips the ball tightly enough that you have to give it a bit of a jerk as you arch your arm through the swing. Once you get used to it you can throw the ball farther. And it has the added bonus of being a way to pick up a soggy tennis ball without having to handle the wet thing.
Yesterday I watched as our five-year-old grandson gave instructions to the four-year-old grandson of our friends. Elliot, the five-year-old is an articulate child who uses words as one of his primary modes of interaction. Beau, the four-year-old is a bit more soft spoken and prefers an economy of speech without quite as many adjectives. Both speak well and understand each other clearly despite differences in accent. Beau is from Australia.
The flood of emotions was fairly intense as I watched the two play. The story is simple. Back in 1974, we moved to Chicago to attend theological seminary. Among the people we met that fall was a doctoral candidate from Australia and his family. Tony and Shirley had traveled the long distance for two years of study abroad with their two children who were six and eight at the time. Their travel was supported in part by their church at home. Part of what attracted us to each other was the simple face that we all were a long way from home. Part of the attraction was the intensity of theological study. We would discuss the concepts presented in our classes long into the night and speculate about the practical applications of this concepts in the churches that we would serve when we completed our formal educations. There were, of course, other students involved in our conversations, and our circle of close friends expanded during those years of intense full-time study.
During the two years that we all were studying in Chicago, our Australian friends were able to visit Montana twice. The first time we all traveled by train during Christmas break and spent time with both Susan’s parents and mine. Winter in Montana is beautiful and we were able to take a snowmobile trip up into the mountains to visit our church camp and have a brief stay at a hot springs resort with a day trip into Yellowstone National Park. The second visit was a car trip after our second year together. Tony had just completed his doctoral studies and their family was headed to the west coast for their departure back to Australia. We were headed to Montana to manage the Conference’s church camp there. We camped our way across the country and said our farewells from the church camp as they headed out to continue their journey.
Some of our friendships have been short stories like I have reported above. We continue to correspond with our distant friends but live quite separate lives, pursuing our separate activities. They returned to Australia and took up their jobs in their home country. We continued for two more years in seminary and I completed my doctorate and began serving congregations here in the United States. With some of our friends similarly close then separated we share an occasional holiday greeting and that is about the extent of our relationship. With others we don’t write letters or send emails, but occasionally meet at a conference or event and do a bit of catching up. With others contact is lost and we live separate lives.
But is that been different with these dear friends. We have kept in touch. They have been able to return to the United States quite a few times and despite the size of our continent, they have always made it a point to visit us. Once they arrived as we were in the middle of a move from Idaho to South Dakota and they helped with the driving and unpacking of our household. A decade ago we were able to travel to Australia and take our adult children with us for a month of touring, visiting and deepening our friendship.
The relationship has forged connections between our children. They have enjoyed their Australian friends and are willing to take the time to continue those connections. Both of our children have taken vacation time and traveled more than 1,000 miles from their homes to spend a few days with our Australian friends.
Watching the two grandsons play with the dog was a delightful experience of the ways in which deep relationships can spread out over many generations. Four decades ago we didn’t imagine the impact of our friendship on our lives. Now we can see how it is affecting the third generation of our families. The deep love of genuine community is stronger than great distances of time and space.
Meaning endures. Joy continues. Love never dies.
There is a device for flinging tennis balls that is made of plastic and has a handle on one end and a cup to hold the tennis ball on the other. It grips the ball tightly enough that you have to give it a bit of a jerk as you arch your arm through the swing. Once you get used to it you can throw the ball farther. And it has the added bonus of being a way to pick up a soggy tennis ball without having to handle the wet thing.
Yesterday I watched as our five-year-old grandson gave instructions to the four-year-old grandson of our friends. Elliot, the five-year-old is an articulate child who uses words as one of his primary modes of interaction. Beau, the four-year-old is a bit more soft spoken and prefers an economy of speech without quite as many adjectives. Both speak well and understand each other clearly despite differences in accent. Beau is from Australia.
The flood of emotions was fairly intense as I watched the two play. The story is simple. Back in 1974, we moved to Chicago to attend theological seminary. Among the people we met that fall was a doctoral candidate from Australia and his family. Tony and Shirley had traveled the long distance for two years of study abroad with their two children who were six and eight at the time. Their travel was supported in part by their church at home. Part of what attracted us to each other was the simple face that we all were a long way from home. Part of the attraction was the intensity of theological study. We would discuss the concepts presented in our classes long into the night and speculate about the practical applications of this concepts in the churches that we would serve when we completed our formal educations. There were, of course, other students involved in our conversations, and our circle of close friends expanded during those years of intense full-time study.
During the two years that we all were studying in Chicago, our Australian friends were able to visit Montana twice. The first time we all traveled by train during Christmas break and spent time with both Susan’s parents and mine. Winter in Montana is beautiful and we were able to take a snowmobile trip up into the mountains to visit our church camp and have a brief stay at a hot springs resort with a day trip into Yellowstone National Park. The second visit was a car trip after our second year together. Tony had just completed his doctoral studies and their family was headed to the west coast for their departure back to Australia. We were headed to Montana to manage the Conference’s church camp there. We camped our way across the country and said our farewells from the church camp as they headed out to continue their journey.
Some of our friendships have been short stories like I have reported above. We continue to correspond with our distant friends but live quite separate lives, pursuing our separate activities. They returned to Australia and took up their jobs in their home country. We continued for two more years in seminary and I completed my doctorate and began serving congregations here in the United States. With some of our friends similarly close then separated we share an occasional holiday greeting and that is about the extent of our relationship. With others we don’t write letters or send emails, but occasionally meet at a conference or event and do a bit of catching up. With others contact is lost and we live separate lives.
But is that been different with these dear friends. We have kept in touch. They have been able to return to the United States quite a few times and despite the size of our continent, they have always made it a point to visit us. Once they arrived as we were in the middle of a move from Idaho to South Dakota and they helped with the driving and unpacking of our household. A decade ago we were able to travel to Australia and take our adult children with us for a month of touring, visiting and deepening our friendship.
The relationship has forged connections between our children. They have enjoyed their Australian friends and are willing to take the time to continue those connections. Both of our children have taken vacation time and traveled more than 1,000 miles from their homes to spend a few days with our Australian friends.
Watching the two grandsons play with the dog was a delightful experience of the ways in which deep relationships can spread out over many generations. Four decades ago we didn’t imagine the impact of our friendship on our lives. Now we can see how it is affecting the third generation of our families. The deep love of genuine community is stronger than great distances of time and space.
Meaning endures. Joy continues. Love never dies.