“I have never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”

Thomas Jefferson, 1801

The Facebook memory machine relays that this group met for dinner on this day eight years ago. Some of these friendships formed at 6579 East Brainerd Road in 1968. This happy little band adopted me in 1971. We are separated by geography from here to, literally, China. Politics, religion, philosophy, & the rest separate us too. Unlike most, our differences aren’t divisive, they are celebrated. None of us promote our life choices as the right way or best way, they are simply our way.
     In the pictured cafeteria, we had our first meals together, learning & applying in the concrete what I learned in the abstract on Sunday mornings just a ¼ mile up the road, that we are all precious pieces of glass in God’s kaleidoscope. By the column, ten boys shared the testosterone laced lunches of adolescence. Led by two fine men in the locker room that adjoined the pictured gym, we learned that a jersey colored blue & orange is more important than skin colored black or white. 
     Shoeless Joe told Ray at the point a baseball diamond met what remained of a cornfield, “…there are others, you know”. Those others aren’t pictured, some have been seen frequently, some not seen, as was the case for me & one of the non pictured two weeks ago, for long periods. We’re drawn together in the good social media & the good never leaving town both offer. Some of us have  seen each other at funeral homes because friends stand with you in the rain when they have the choice to stay dry.
     All this is due to those lessons in concrete. One of the rare places, though now gone, that “treat your neighbor as yourself” existed & still exists. I’m honored to call them, pictured or unpictured, my friends…& it’s what they helped me learn that sometimes I might care too much about another small gym & cafeteria…