The Hooters were one of my favorite 80's bands (laugh all you want at the name, it had nothing to do with the restaurant with the "owl" mascot--it was a small keyboard like instrument that used wind to play it... kind of an updated rock accordion/harmonica with keys. But I digress....) They had a song called "You Never Know Who Your Friends Are."
Today, I got to hang out with my friend Mike. We could never have predicted or planned the circumstances or choices that brought us both back "home" to Kansas; both of us had rooted and connected our lives in other places far away from here. Both of us have most recently felt more at home elsewhere and not (yet) here, in Kansas. But today, after more than two years since we last saw each other and really four years since he moved away, we were back together again.
There are some people you just feel "at home" with. Mike has been one of those people for me over the years. Even though its been so long, and there has been a lot of life and experiences that have come and gone, it was like picking up right where we left off. Our conversation wandered through catching up to issues of faith and life and money and choices and social justice and politics and grace and love and places in our lives that need a little healing. We treked from Shawnee through Westport and Midtown to downtown KC and then over near 18th and Broadway we entered the "First Church of Arthur Bryant's" and shared a communion of rib tips and a pitcher of Boulevard.
We could never have predicted, planned, or ever even remotely wished for the circumstances and choices that led us on the path of life to this reunion. But here is the grace for the moment (from the Hooter's song, and Mike if you read this, especially for you...) "Its funny how the road can lead back to all the ones you need, you never know who your friends are..."
Today, I do know. Thank you, Professor Dude man.
