Side by Side

Sam had just come back from Paris - one of those quick holidays Marine Guards get. He'd been given one little mission - return with champagne.

He'd never had real champagne before and suffered, in my champagne drinking opinion, from the mistaken belief that it was for special occasions. Yep. I share this opinion with Brian; as opinions go, it's one of the best to share. :) Anyway, I suggested that champagne was for whenever you had the chance and if you went into it right, the special part would follow.

He was willing to give that a try and was ready to share that first effort with me. Oh, I was so happy!

We met on the bank of the Danube River at twilight and found a concrete platform to sit on so our legs dangled over the not so blue water. Across from us was the Parliament, a pretty regal bit of architecture. Behind us was the castle and the fairytale Fisherman's Bastion.



Dusk turned into night and the theater of Budapest would have started. Light must have fanned up the buildings dramatically. The Chain Bridge would have begun to glow; the floating casinos and clubs down the river would have been glittering,

It must have been pretty darned beautiful. A lot of places are beautiful. A backyard dancing with fireflies is. A front porch watching over the swooshing sprinklers is. The kitchen counter with chairs pulled up to it is.

It could have been any of those places. We just didn't notice. I mean, it's great to sit back and savor your scenery, but we were just having more fun being friends. We had nothing but the future to talk about.

Living abroad with guaranteed changes ahead - new assignments, moves to different countries - makes the future a pretty popular topic. But we had that kind of friendship, that that loves to trade ideas and help fill in the other's plans.

I feel pretty lucky to have quite a few friends like that. You have those friends, too, don't you? Aren't they WONDERFUL?! Oh, it's good having friends to review the stuff of the day, to complain and cry to, but the friends who are there to imagine with! Wow.

Actually, in the middle of writing this, I called another friend and by the time we were off the phone, we'd cooked up a whole new business. She'd accidentally forgotten what an enormous talent she had for event design and what with all the new weddings possible in Iowa ... It was great.

Sam. I haven't seen him for the longest time. He went to the Ukraine. Or Belarus. I went to England. But if he visited tomorrow, I believe he knows I'd be sooo happy to sit with him all over again, side by side, and look out at the future together.

Maybe with one less bottle of champagne, though, because my futures don't like hangovers so much.

P.S.

Writing that last one nearly made my head explode!! Maybe I should have just posted the animation of 'Imagining World' and let the interpretation chips fall where they - how does that line go? Fall where they may? Fall where they will?

Yah. Maybe I should've done that and run away really really fast.

Imagining World

A few years ago, a friend bought a number of StoryPeople prints for gifts. For each person on his list, he found a perfect story and we marveled at how easy it was.

And then he chose a print for himself. Or rather, it sort of chose him. It seemed to cast a spell. I watched him return, over and over to it. He had to have it. Even though he didn't understand it. Not at all.

'At all?' I didn't quite believe him. He managed high risk projects in emerging markets. That almost pre-qualified him for understanding it. Besides, anyone can take a stab (and sometimes, a punch) at interpreting. 'At ALLLLL?'

'Not at all.' He read it one more time. 'Nope. What does it mean?'

Well, I couldn't explain it. Or maybe I wouldn't. One of those.



It's great when we meet art, whatever kind, and have instant sympathy. But a whole lot of art gets a whole lot of better when we invest in it, when we explore it, when we learn enough to understand it (you know, like The Wasteland. Which is why I'll never EVER believe ANYONE who pretends they just picked up a little James Joyce for light reading. STOPPPPPP it. You are KILLING me!)

And then there's the art, the literature, the music that we have to do something a little special for. It doesn't need, or even want, a PhD. It doesn't get better if you can recite all the obscure names ever associated with it.

It just seems to want us to open up, be freely curious, hear it, let it lead us out of what we expect into what we can imagine. Oh, I don't know. Hard, isn't it, to describe it exactly.

Either way, he got it for himself. 'Imagining World.'

And now, especially now, at this time in the world, I really do wonder if he's come to understand it. I imagine he has.