Day 361: The Countdown To The End, Part I

As of today, I’m down to my last six posts of this great endeavor to explore all things positive every day for entire year. In the few days that remain, I want to use five of the last six to write about those topics that have been most important and most positive not only this year but throughout all my years: Friends, foes, my kids, my wife, and myself. (That last one isn’t nearly as egotistical as it might seem.)

I’ll start with friends, without whom I’d be nothing and I’d be nowhere. I’ve written about many of them previously, but honestly, there’s too little time and too little space to ever give them the full and due representations they deserve. I’ve been blessed with absolutely unbelievable people in my life, and I’m completely and utterly aware of the great fortune of such.  

I have friends who are family and family who are friends.

I have friends I’ve never met in the flesh and friends I’ve grown up with.

I have friends who live around the world and friends who live right next door.

I have friends who are republicans, democrats, and everything in between.

I have friends who believe in God and who don’t.

I have friends so brilliant that I can’t begin to fathom how their brains work.

I have friends so artistic and creative I’m simultaneously jealous and inspired.

I have friends who have guided me in prayer and who have drank me under the table.

I have friends who put me in precarious situations and friends who have literally pulled me out of the mud.

My friends have fixed my broken-down cars, patched holes in my ceiling, cared for my kids and my pets, repaired the cavities in my teeth, and gave my guitars new life.

I have friends who have lent me their ear, their books, their music, their cars, their movies, their labor, and their advice.

My friends have mowed my lawn, scooped my driveway, dry-walled my basement, and wired my house for electricity.

I have friends who have lent me a dollar when I needed it, bought me a meal when I was hungry, gave me a ride when I was stranded, and gave me a place to sleep when I needed the shelter.  

I’ve played basketball, football, baseball, softball, handball, racquetball, volleyball, and pinball with my friends, not to mention tennis, kick soccer, badminton, and golf.

I have friends who are teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, writers, editors, mechanics, musicians, filmmakers, artists, marketing gurus, salesmen, nurses, photographers, house painters, plumbers, dentists, software programmers, chefs, daycare owners, physical therapists, firemen, police officers, students, furniture makers, social workers, state workers, city workers, country workers, federal workers, engineers, architects, bartenders, therapists, military veterans, active servicemen, homemakers, preachers, stay-at-home dads, volunteers, business owners, and so much more.

I have friends who are gone but not forgotten.

I have friends who live in big cities and the smallest of small towns.

I have friends who ride motorcycles and who ride skateboards.

I’ve laughed, cried, argued, debated, and fought with my friends. I punched and been punched by my friends.

I’ve cursed and praised my friends.

I’ve admired and worried about my friends.

I very much miss some of my friends this very second.

Throughout this year, I’ve been so blessed to have been in better and more consistent contact with so many more of my friends than was the case in previous years. I could not be more thankful for that. I can’t begin to describe the positive influence so many of them instill in my life on a daily basis. I can’t begin to put a value on those friendships. I’ve learned so much in regards to faith and passion and purity from my friends. I’ve learned so much about parenting and fatherhood. I’ve learned so much about giving back to others. About being true to thyself.

Like anyone I suppose, I have some friends who I especially covet and who I especially draw inspiration from. Some of them might be surprised to learn that. Some of them have long had that kind of influence on me. Some of them I don’t have the opportunity to keep in contact with nearly as much as I’d like, but their influence remains as strong and true as could be.

I’m not always an easy person to be friends with. I like to kid myself into believing that being an “artist” makes me “dark” and “moody” and “somewhat of a loner,” but the truth probably lies closer to the fact that I haven’t always felt all that optimistic about the world I live. Thank God I’ve had smarts enough to surround myself with people who counterbalance those tendencies.

I’m truly a blessed man to have such good people available. When I begin to wonder about the hope this world has to offer, these people are living, breathing reminders of what’s good and what’s possible.