Too High a Spirit (Joe)

We had dinner with the friends we're housesitting for last night before their wee-hours flight this morning. They're more Monica's friends than mine, so I asked: Why this vacation out of the country, and why now? The short answer was, because we're not getting any younger, because we have close friends who had Bad Things happen and never got to realize their dreams, and because every day is a gift.

Someone who merely parrots this as from a greeting card, that sentiment rings hollow. They merely articulated, though, what I'd been trying to put my finger on about them since we met earlier that afternoon. They actually do live their whole life that way. What he is, what she is, comes through so clearly, so transparently in the look of their home, the work they do-and-love, the love they show their dogs (present) and their adult children (not present, but so much on their minds), and to me especially, a stranger before today but treated like a college frat brother. My own openness to revealing myself to new people is palpable to me here, reflected in the warmth it allows me to get back. Instant karma.

In addition to running his own business, our host is active in providing quick-construction housing to stricken areas here (Think Katrina) and abroad. I asked him how this came to be a passion of his, and if I hadn't I suspect he never would have told the story, he doesn't seem the self-aggrandizing sort. Almost sheepishly, he wove the tale of his activist post-college days and an "If not for the Grace of God there go I" tragedy that galvanized his future path. It struck me that I don't meet too many men who I instantly respect, admire.

So I don't know that I am privy to the complete reality that encompasses the reason Monica and I have undertaken Doing A 180, for "now we see in a mirror, darkly," if you will. But today, one of the reasons is that I am opening myself up to more people like this. A one-time meeting or a lifelong friend, it's clear that I am charged to understand the give-and-take of the situation, and the gifts of our Selves that we give each other in these small ways.