This past week, A* and I took the opportunity to travel and visit our very best friends. That description is completely accurate based solely on the fact that no matter how much time has past since our last visit with them (10 months), everything picked up exactly where we left off: the comfort level with each other; the family atmosphere; the ability to actually know that their house was our house for those few days; the tears mixed in with goodbye. It could easily be written into a novel or movie. There was humor, embarrassment, frustration, play, seriousness, hilarity (especially when playing Cranium!), and most importantly love. And what started as simple friendship between two married couples over 8 years ago now includes our growing families with children who are becoming friends, too.

As wonderful as those days were, the void of missing them the moment we returned home was as large as always. It is a friendship that cannot really be replaced, but we do desire to add onto that type of friendship with another. It is part of the story of our life together, though we rarely think of it in that way. But last night after catching up on two of television shows that we enjoy, I started thinking of it in just that way. The second show, One Tree Hill, began over five years ago as a typical and new teeny soap opera-like show. A mix between Dawson's Creek and 90210, there was a seriousness in the editorial narrative that introduced and ended each episode, yet plenty of all of the stuff that makes a teenage show popular - scandal, sex, drama. It began that way, and in some ways I was slightly ashamed of taking delight in such a show, but as time wore on it was clear there was a subversive, yet real foundation pervading the story greater than those popularity plot lines.

That foundation is building community - real relationships, choosing good over evil, and most of all, love. We've heard it all before - good vs. evil is what makes a story a story. It's everywhere we turn: the news, the movies, the books, and even the Bible. And yet despite the need for conflict to continue the story for a successful television series to continue, the writers and producers of One Tree Hill keep coming back to the truth that real love of one another is how we make it in this world. The past episode even went so bold as to give a character the stage to declare Jesus Christ as the foundation of her life, and in that particular instance her grief. No dispute of that declaration was made, no clarification, no disclaimer. It was just out there. And personally allowed my long suspicions to continue that there are some pretty cool and subversive followers of Jesus involved in that show despite some story lines that tempt religious pundits to claim otherwise. It's a bit similar to this story of missionaries-to-be being snubbed from funding support because of support for Obama for president. The simple moral is that we have to be prepared to dig deeper to find the truth than just the surface. (Note: as I published here, I have not made up my mind so don't take this as any endorsement.)

Getting back to stories, I also recently decided to re-read The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. It is probably the one book I've ever read that has challenged me the most, and continues to challenge me as I'm working through it now. The main character gets to eaves drop in this moral tale of interactions between Ghosts and Solid People, who have journeyed back from their journey into heaven to convert the Ghosts and help them begin their journey to the Light - which is Jesus. The Solid People know the Ghosts intimately, having spent life with them and passed on before them. But in the stories I've had a chance to eavesdrop on with the main character, all of the Ghosts find reasons to remain focused on their life as it were, not Life as it could be. What is becoming clear halfway through the book is that the story of our life on earth is very much defining the story of our Life beyond the earth. Even more strongly worded by one of the Solid People talking to the main fellow is that life on earth is very much Heaven or Hell based on the perspective of our life story.

C.S. Lewis is throwing out a challenge - the same challenge we see week after week on television and in movies. Our lives are stories that weave in and out of people lives; lives that depend on each other; stories that influence each other. It can ebb and flow like a great novel; it will have conflict. It can be heavenly at times and hellish the next. But does the story lead to the source of life itself? Is there a subversive foundation that brings the life story back to love? It is easy for me to lose track of that. Over and over again I get swept up in the mundane and repetitive schedule of the days. Days turn into weeks that turn into months. Frustrations and migraines result from my job which provides the financial source to pay the bills and support our family structure. There are days that I just want to get over with, days that I barely have energy to play with my daughter and talk briefly to my wife. There are others days that I am overcome with fear that influences my every thought and action.

And there are days, like today, that I embrace the love that fuels my life story. Today, when the migraine was averted at work by changing what I was doing and where I was located; when I arrived home to the passionate hug of my soon-to-be two-year-old daughter; to the kiss of my wife cut short by the tugging of my arm to play outside with my daughter. To sharing with A* the cute visions of Amelia watching the bunnies in our garden eat a fallen tomato and sharing the ice cream cone together at the Promenade.

All that is left is for my head to hit the pillow and drift into a deep and refreshing sleep. At least that is my hope. But before I did that, I need to take some time to reflect on best friends and stories - especially the story that I'm living out right now.

How many times does that average person say or think this? I have no idea, but I'm saying it way too much. And I can say it for a least three or four different perspectives of a day in my life, whether I'm at work or home, or wanting to read or write. I have lists of priorities in each of those four perspectives, and others, too, like email that friend, or call my brother, or finish application for worship team "just in case..."

I don't know how much I complained to A* about writing and re-writing and re-writing my technical book chapter, but after all was said and done, I found it quite fulfilling. It was a PITA during the whole process, but as I wrote before, I can see why people want to do this full time and need to do it full time. For example, I've been asked to contribute regularly to the Burnside Writers Collective, both it regularly published journal and the BWC blog. And to start off, my first blog post was published there this weekend.

It's been fun getting to know the other writers virtually through email and Facebook, including learning that one of the regular contributors lives near me, and is the same age as me, and also has a family and stuff. I have three articles planned, but finding the time to balance family life, work, sleep, and anything extra-curricular is getting really hard. Stress carried over from one to another doesn't help that at all, and prioritizing it all is sometimes a no-win situation. Something, or sometimes someone, has to give, and that is hard.

Notice what is missing from that list? Community! The first three are necessities, and honestly, both A* and I know and struggle with the realization that community has to be in that necessity list, too. But it is so frustrating when that seems to have to get pushed aside time and time again. Again, something has to give, including maybe how I hold on to some of the ideals I want in my life. Or maybe just some selfish stubborness. Either way, something's gotta give.