neighborliness

My friend Doug knows what it means to be a good neighbor. He came over at 9:00 a couple nights ago to help me install a new dishwasher. We got a late start because we’d each had very long workdays.

The installation didn’t follow the script. (Do they ever, I wonder?). It was impossible to discern which breaker the electrical was wired to so we turned them all off. Of course, that meant doing much of the job by flashlight.

The not-so-helpful instructions estimated the job should take between one and three hours. Doug left our house at 1:00 in the morning. He was still smiling. Perhaps even more striking was the utter absence of profanity! That’s a good neighbor. In fact, for those four hours at least, I’d say Doug’s neighborliness bordered on the saintly.

Grace arrives in many forms. I’ve found, though, that it usually involves a palpably personal and relational element. Grace usually entails somebody choosing to be available as its conduit.



Copyright Scott Burnett 2006

my soulscape thrums

There are moments
when my soulscape
thrums with jazz and banter
…pulses with brushstrokes and light

And then cuts abruptly
to a vacant soundstage
mute as ash
held like a breath
…pending and panicked

At such times my beliefs
like unemployed actors
must again audition
for their roles
in the script I hold

They are fragile and insecure
It is a wearisome business

But you are singing under a streetlamp
tambourine in hand
refusing to learn your lines
confronting me with hilarity
…reanimating the mundane


Copyright Scott Burnett 2007

trust

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.
Confucius

This is as deep a truth as there is. To be deceived is among the worst of human experiences; but distrust withers friendship, and we need friendship in order to become fully human.

Friendship brings longevity and joy to our loves: marriage blooms in it. In friendship, family connectedness can thrive without throttling.

Friendship freely says, "I'd rather risk being a fool than hoard my heart behind fortress walls."