Rev. Sean’s Notebook: On good, old friends.

For the past ten days, I have had the pleasure of hanging out with one of my best friends in the world, Ben Peach, or, as he is now known to my family, MISTER Peach.

Ben and I met in Maryland in 1986.

Our friendship began with a love of wine and poetry. In fact, in the old days, one of our favorite things to do was sit around with a tape recorder, kill a few bottles of wine, and read our newest stuff to one another. It breaks my heart that none of those old tapes survived the years, but the memories are no less precious.

When he first pulled into my driveway almost two weeks ago, our friendship had survived 33 years, two marriages, two divorces, two continents, and the sad passing of several good, old friends, as well as the loss of both our fathers, one mother, and one older brother. My heart swelled as I introduced him to my wife, Siria, and my stepkids. That first night, Ben and I agreed that our decades-long friendship could best be described by the Beatles song, “In My Life”:

“Some are dead and some are living…in my life, I’ve loved them all…”

We shared many wonderful moments over the past ten days, most of which took place on my now infamous porch, such as the night we sat up and listened to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” from beginning to end, singing all the lyrics as the bottles of wine were finished to the dregs. We also hung out one night reading our favorite poems aloud, as we used to many years before, only now, with the wisdom of age, we no longer felt the need to record or video our performances. As we had learned, recordings can be lost, but our memories will always survive the times and distance.

We also shared a few tears, as we remembered our old friends who had been lost. A few more tears were shed in the emotions of the loss of my brother, and the ongoing situation regarding my mother’s move to Texas. As he has for all these years, my friend Ben held me up when I was losing my shit. Odd for me, I simply do not have the words to thank him properly for his love and strength during this difficult time. Then again, with good, old friends, words are often unnecessary.

In fact, when we said goodbye in my driveway this morning, the only words we needed were, “I love you, man…”

All true friends are a blessing, but the folks who knew us when we were young are the dearest and the most loyal of all. While I am sad to see him go today, I am thankful he is still in my life, and always will be, no matter what life tosses at us.

Ben is travelling the country in his van with his cat, Coco. He is recording his journey on a youtube channel, which you can subscribe to at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW123B8Q2RsZW-9RZjcSTzg/videos

Beyond that, a bit of me goes with him. And a bit of him is here, with me, in San Antonio.

I love you, Mister Peach. Safe journeys, my brother.

I hope you find what you are looking for, out there…and I’ll see you again.

rev s

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To pick up a copy of Sean’s newest collection of poems, go to this link:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/sean-rima/poems/paperback/product-23960209.html