Sunday, August 29, 2010

Sunday Drives

When I was a kid, we would do what a lot of Southern families did during those days. Church came first (Pastor Johnson always went past 12:00), followed by a big lunch either at home or at Morrison’s Restaurant where we waited in line with all of the other Christians, and then we would often take a Sunday drive.

These drives could be to Tybee Island, to other neighborhoods to see how other people lived or to the Country to see cows or horses or pigs. It was Mom, Dad, David and me. I suppose Angi wasn’t born yet or my folks had put her in the trunk because she cried all of the time. Either way, I don’t remember her on Sunday drives.

The world has changed since then. A lot!

On Face Book I’ve made a lot of new friends whom I haven’t actually met yet. One is Will Simmons who lives in Atlanta and is a graduate of Georgia Tech. He is the grandfather of Sam who is my daughter Chelsea’s boyfriend (Yes they are a mixed relationship. He goes to Tech and Chelsea is at the University of Georgia).

Regardless, Will made a friend request which I gladly accepted and we have been communicating back and forth for a while now. Will reads my daily writings and he decided that he wanted to visit to see for himself the places that I describe every day.

So he goes to Bing’s Bird Eye View on his computer, types in my address, and there are satellite images of my house. He looks at it from the street then scrolls around the side. He sees the carport and the hanging plants and the outdoor shower where I am baptized most days. He goes into the back yard and sees my beloved back deck.

The he travels down the street to the marsh and traces the walk that I take daily with Goddess. He finds Shirley’s sad little holy dock.

He messages me to tell me these things and I am blown away!

Then I think about Deedra, Mitch, Mark and Gyni who I went to college with and how Face Book led to a reunion at my house. We have talked together every day for more than a month now. It is though thirty years of not seeing or talking to one another never happened.

Even Guy, the person to blame for me going to seminary and becoming a professional Christian, is now on and talking to us.

One of the blessings of being at Union Mission all of those years were the wonderful people from across the country that I got to know when I visited them or they visited us. We are now in a constant dialogue with one another.

Then there are the communications that I have with those I see with some regularity. Johnny O posts pictures for me to see though he is only a few blocks away. I let Conner know of all of the new and creative things that he can accomplish with a nail gun. Shirley lives around the corner but we Face Book more than we talk.

Even when Keller Deal is mad with me and not communicating she chooses to use Face Book to make her point and the silence can be deafening.

Then are daily private conversations that fly back and forth offering or receiving advice and counsel, love and encouragement, or to make plans.

And on Sunday’s, I have more time to take a drive on the World Wide Web to see what is going on in the lives of people I love and care for. It seems that many of them do too. And these Sunday drives are just as special today as they were when I was a kid.