It was the social aspect of Food Truck Night that he loved, I am sure. I am equally certain that I was not his favorite dinner partner for the night - oh, simply because I really really like AC and really am adverse to hot - and sticky.
I went down to see Jim get ice water dumped on him. Crazy thing that is going around. He is a good sport, I have to say that. It is not my kind of thing, and I rarely do something just because someone says I need to do it. If it makes sense to me, or it is something I support, perhaps. I'll donate where I feel led, thank you very much. Oh - I sound kind of like Roger.
This was one of those lazy days of summer. If I had a wide and breezy front porch, it would have been a mint julep kind of day. (OK, mint sprigs in my tea, kind of day) I didn't, of course, since I spent the afternoon getting the Honda tuned and cleaned. Ah cleaned - and no one got in my car, so it is still clean. That won't last long - but for the moment, ahhhhh!
It was nice that the breeze picked up as dusk began to settle in, but it was not fast enough nor cool enough for me, so I took my little self home to the AC. Weak, yes, indeed!
I settled in with the blind doggie and the flipper and landed on the National Geographic Channel - and after a while, imagined Roger sitting with me. He would have loved this show. Brain Games. It was fascinating. I got most of the games right. He would have won almost all of them.
Roger is what, as a teacher, I would have called an under-performing student. He was SO INCREDIBLY SMART and he had pretty much no interest in sitting in a class and listening to someone yak on about something. "Get to the point" he would say. And he hated to be read to. So much for those romantic notions of sitting and reading poetry to each other, right - ha - not my thing either, so it worked out well.
Roger could read ANYTHING, analyze and memorize it. And his re-call - oh, there is just no comparison to anyone I know.
I guess almost every preacher I ever heard would say something like "mark this down in your Bible" - oh man - Roger sooooo disagreed. I wish he had marked favorite passages, because it would be something else to hold on to. No - he memorized them. He never would mark in his Bible. He said it was God's Word and it did not need embellishment.
Oh - he had a point. Some of us learn differently though. I am tactile. I need that sensory stimulation of writing so my brain will engage. And visual too!
It is so funny the way you know things about the person you love, and yet they don't seem so incredibly special until that person is gone. It's kind of sad too, that we don't appreciate the little things while we have them.
Roger's Lesson: I'm not quite sure this time. Perhaps he would say that he accepted over time that people learn in different ways, but if you are going to write in your Bible - then at the very least, pay attention to what God has to say and not just what you or the preacher have to say. Then apply it.
Oh Roger - I miss your trivia questions. I miss that you challenged me to look for the answers. I even miss that you were so very much smarter than me. (However, I will still say that you had 10 years as a head start.)
But - I will keep learning, accepting challenges that keep me alert and engaged, and I will especially keep working on connecting names and faces and their stories. You left me a lot to work on - it could take a while.
- “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
Yes, I always have a better day when I ask God to teach me something special during this season of life.
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