Today is "Friends Day" in Argentina. The custom is to send greeting cards to your friends or give them a call.
Lidia
Masalyka, an Argentine pastor’s wife and excellent writer, sent me her “Friends
Day” devotional. It came with the title “Weeping
for Wilson.” With Lidia’s generous permission I
am borrowing her title and quoting a part of her excellent homily below.
Lidia
writes:
Who
doesn’t remember the above scene in Tom Hanks’ film “Castaway?” Tom plays the survivor of a plane crash who alone
on an island decides to search through the wreckage of the plane. He finds a
volleyball with the brand “Wilson” on it.
In the craze of his loneliness he finds himself talking to his “friend,”
a mute and immobile sphere that he names: “Wilson”.
When the tide comes in, it carries the ball away. In his desperation he weeps and swims out to
rescue it.
What a great way to describe that we have not been created
to live alone on an island! God made us
to be social beings with the possibility of making and maintaining
relationships more distant than our immediate family. The company of others is necessary for us.
Our need for “others” confirms us as persons. It is the “other” that gives us value. For this reason the survivor quickly gets
tired of talking to himself (monologue) and seeks a dialogue (speaking to
someone else) although it seems to us funny to talk to a volleyball. Normal conversation, of course, requires another
person. We need each other. We cannot live without each other. Without friends life loses its flavor.
Great stuff, Lidia!
Today
I give thanks to God for you, the reader… my friend. True… I may live very far from you and not be able
to see you except once a year or less.
But you are still my friend.
Sometimes
you send me an email. When I receive it
I see your face inside my mind, I enjoy your smile and I am encouraged to carry
on.
When
you reach 81 years old you start thanking God for younger friends because at
this age you get invited to lots of funerals.
Almost
three years ago I lost my best friend. Her
birthday was the 14th of this month.
Although I know that the separation is only temporary, nonetheless one
suffers the vacuum. And I confess that
like Tom Hanks role in “Castaway” who talks to a volleyball named “Wilson”,
sometimes I catch myself talking to a portrait of my best friend named “Frances”.
Ralph
