The man e-mailed his friend from years

gone by. He didn’t call even though the

friend’s # is in his cell-phone contacts.

For some reason the word awkward came

to mind when he thought about calling,

and so he wrote and got a response, a

matter-of-fact, data filled response – re-

tired, watching grandkids, spouse dealing

with arthritis. Congenial. Twenty-one years

ago, the friend had traveled many, many

miles to attend the memorial service for the

man’s wife who died tragically in a day.

The friend was there and he stopped for a

ham sandwich, pickle and potato chips at

the reception and left to travel back all those

miles. Several years later the friend asked the

man to preach at the celebration of the friend’s

twenty-fifth anniversary of his ordination and

fiftieth birthday. Since then, the man always

has to call or write his friend, and now it is

always write and not often. Sometimes the

man just has to remember long miles driven

and invitations to be a part of special occasions

in a friend’s life, give thanks and leave it at

that.