Moving On

  About a week ago my friends Mark and Sarah let us know that they were going to be moving to California. Of all the places that I wouldn't want to be right now, California would be near the top of the list, right behind Portland, Seattle, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and any place in China. From what I can gather, there are a number of folks from California leaving and heading for the more sane places like Texas and Idaho. I just hope they leave their liberal ideas behind. One California is all this country can stand. In any event, the news hit me like a ton of bricks. I had no idea they were even thinking of going. I think there is a lot of sacrifice involved in the decision, and that's their business, but for my own selfish reasons, I really, really hate to see them go. Friends are hard to come by nowadays, true friends that is, and I've seen so many of my friends leave Hoonah over the years. I sometimes watch them go and wonder why I'm still here. When someone leaves, it's hard to maintain the relationship. I still stay in touch with a few good friends, but others gradually fade away. They get busy with life and if they aren't around to chat with at the store or post office you just don't think of them as much.  There's no getting together for dinner or dessert or a game of gin rummy. One nice thing about friends is that you get to spend enough time together to know each other, but not so much as to get annoying. You know that as much as you like them, they'll probably be going home at the end of the night. As you know if you've read this blog for awhile, Mark is the postmaster here, and an exceptional one at that. He's more than just the postmaster, he's made a habit of baking or buying baked goods to share with the patrons on many occasions, and when the town library shut down he was instrumental in making sure that there was a free exchange of books in the lobby. His knowledge of stamps helped me to expand my own stamp collection. On Wednesday nights he was the MC for trivia out at the Icy Strait Lodge. I'm not sure if anyone else will fill that position. It won't be the same one way or another. He had a certain flair the way he did it. I believe he's border line genius and knows a wealth of information and can  discuss almost any subject that comes up. We often banter back and forth making up fictional characters and coming up with scenarios for them. His sense of humor is as bizarre as mine, and we've enjoyed many a laugh together. I suspect that his sense of humor, plus just his good and kind nature is what drew Sarah to him. She is a vegetarian and he's mastered a variety of surprisingly tasteful dishes without meat to enhance their meals. His latest masterpiece involves french fries made of eggplant. They showed up at our  house for a meal a few weeks ago and shared the fries without telling me at first what they were. I've had eggplant before and aside from the lovely dark purple color, I wouldn't give you a dime for it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go out and buy any, but if Mark were to put it into commercial production, I'd sure buy it. Perhaps he could market them as Mr. Smith's Surprise Fries. I've had more than a few of his culinary delights and mentioned that I thought he could sell them, but he thought that would take the joy out of creating them. Perhaps so. I've enjoyed my discussions with Sarah, especially as of late. We're both fairly conservative and are appalled by what is happening in this country and the eroding of our freedoms. She's quick to laugh and has a good sense of humor, plus she introduced me to her dogs, Rabano and Chia. There's no two ways about it, their leaving is going to leave a big hole in my heart. Nonetheless I wish them well.  Ralph Waldo Emerson pretty much understood the placement of friends in our lives when he wrote-  "A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."  Please enjoy your friends while you have them. Let them know you love them and appreciate them and don't forget to thank God Almighty for them. They're to be treasured.