I sit here on the Writing Porch anxiously awaiting our dear friends Laura and Jim. I remember our many wonderful fellowships together. Jim and I customarily enjoyed a holiday wine at the Mississippi Flyway in the days leading up to Christmas. I swear our friends had the best Christmas decorations that I have ever seen…and multiple Christmas Trees!

Our friends provide a mirror for us as to what we are all going through and our shared struggles. As the great philosopher Forrest Gump’s mother once said…Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get.

Faith is abstract to me until I see it in my friends and fellow members of the human family. Often I see hope in the eyes of a child and peace in the eyes of the aged.

The dynamic of friends brings a quickening of spirit and a surety of purpose.

My best friends Steve and Susie in Chicago loved to put on a Marionette Show for me and my peers. Steve and Susie were a bit older than I. The Marionettes fascinated me and I often was caught up in the peculiar puppet world of actors on strings. Thunderbirds was a popular television show in 1965 and 66. All of the performers were marionettes. I found a couple of marionettes at the Cricket And Red Brick Antique Mall on Friday. Suddenly I was transported to Sauk Village Steve and Susie’s house and the Marionettee Show. Susie was my girlfriend…in my mind…and they were taking time to perform a show that delighted their audience…was friendship.