Month-long challenge letter #1–To My Best Friend
Published Thu, Jun 2 2011 5:34 PM
Dear George,
Melody, one of the angels over at The Trouble With Angels has issued what she has labeled One big-ass month-long challenge. Basically the challenge is to write a blog-posting every day in the form of a letter that you would have or perhaps should have written to a particular person. This is a big departure in format for me, but what the heck. For Day 1 it’s supposed to be to your best friend. Right off the bat it’s a challenge.
To begin with, I don’t have many true “friends”. I can count my real friends on the fingers of one hand, two of them are no longer among the living. The other three are still with us, and you know two of them.
I’m grateful for our friendship and the time we shared together, even though it was so brief. We met at The Tabernacle shortly after I broke up with Cathy. Man was that a messed up relationship. I wonder if I’ll have the courage to post the letter I’ll write to her on day 7. You were a surfer-dude looking kind of guy and I was your typical geek. You certainly didn’t seem like the type of person I thought I would end up hanging out with, but that was one of the cooler things about that church group, young people from just about all backgrounds were accepted and got along well. There weren’t any cliques, we were really all brothers and sisters.
When my mom and dad divorced I had a real hard time dealing with it. You, Mike, Karma, and a few other people really helped me out. When I made the “mistake” (as if) of staying to eat dinner with my dad and his girlfriend one night my mom kicked me out, and there you were. I still remember that little apartment we shared and all of the trouble we had with it.
And I remember your tolerance, something quite a few people today seem to have confused with wanton acceptance. I knew you disapproved of my smoking, but you left it alone. When it finally crossed the line into illegal drugs – a relapse, not something new – you confronted me about it. It stung, but I knew you were right. Sadly, that’s a battle that I fought off and on for another ten or fifteen years before the Lord finally gave me victory. Through it all you remained my friend, even when I didn’t deserve it. That’s how you made it as one of the “fingers”.
When you and Teree hit it off, I became insanely jealous, although I never told you (or her). I had something of a crush on her in High School, but never did anything about it – and then I met Cathy. When we moved into her mom’s house it re-awakened for a time, but again you two were meant for each other.
After I moved out to live with Mike and Karma for a while before leaving Florida altogether, we sort of grew apart. It wasn’t until some years later that my wife and I came back to Florida for a visit that I saw you again. It was great to see you, and to see how well you and Teree were doing. I sincerely regret that it was the last time I saw you. Still, I look forward to seeing you again on that day when the big family re-union comes and when we get to see Him face to face.
Till then, you’ll always be my best friend,
Perri
p.s., If you want to see what Melody wrote to her best friends (that’s right, two of them), take a hop on over to her site.
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mel responded with:
 | How very lovely! That was a great letter and I'm so glad you're participating. |
David responded with:
 | Great letter, Perri.
I felt a tug to participate, but some of the "letters" were... not going to happen for a wide range of reasons. Some because I'm in regular, meaningful discourse with the recipients and such "letters" would be superfluous, some because I am deeply aware of the impossibility of the words ever being accepted (since in those cases they already have been written or said numerous times and have not been), some because I feel they would be dishonest (how many people have "known" someone for a day and really known that person? I'd wager somewhere between none and a large negative number, going from my own experience :-)), others because they not only were duplicates multiple times over but duplicates of written and spoken communications... many times over, etc. (I guess I do tend to talk a lot or at least I've been told so *heh*)
It's a good thought exercise, but each "letter" subject I read through raised either red flags or realization that they were deeply personal discourses already conveyed, sometimes many, many times over, with very few exceptions. (OK, I already did Day 25 a few days ago, before I knew about this challenge, just not on my blog. In "person" as it were. The US mails are still good for things like that.)
Perhaps I've just lived too long. I often wonder about that. *heh* |
Perri Nelson responded with:
 | Yes, these will likely be deeply personal. In some cases, they'll be duplicates - I'll just post a reference back to the original letter. In some cases, they're kind of odd as well.
Most of the one's I'll post I'll never send - and the people they're addressed to will likely never read - or in some cases be able to read as they've passed on a long time ago. I might send a couple - although the people I'm likely to send them to are likely to read them here.
I don't often write to people, so some of the things I'll say are more about my own shortcomings than anything else. Some of my friends will recognize who I'm writing to - so I'm not about to put anything down that would be harmful to the people involved.
If what I have to say is truly private - it's not going to be written here. |
David responded with:
| Well, I still do write snail mail letters. Olde Pharte, I guess. *heh* I can't even write the one to a stranger, really, because I engage nearly all the "strangers" I meet--and the ones I don't I mostly just forget. OK, not "mostly". Recall is not what it used to be... ;-) |
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