I don’t really get Baseball, being British and all.
But I do get innocence. I do get childhhood. I do get reaching for a dream. My last post got me in the mood to experience a story about Hopes and Dreams (you’ll find I have a very “six degrees of Kevin Bacon” way of thinking about things – where one film leads to another, then another) so I spent that Saturday evening chilling out with a huge Port (“Graham’s” natch) and Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams.
It’s one of those stories that lifts you no matter what mood you’re in. It also could potentially make you excited about Baseball, even if you’re not a sport fan. Because really it’s about doing something crazy, about taking a risk (Risk is an essential component of spiritual and emotional maturity – as father says, “faint heart never won fair maiden”). It’s about putting ourselves back in that mode of innocence, of shared experiences, communal experiences of encouraging others, communal experiences of triumph and commiseration. It’s about the loss of dreams, “coming ‘that’ close to your dream and having it pass you by without even touching it”, having your dream taken away, your passion stolen and reduced to something rotten. Being able to restore someone elses’s dream….that’s something that becomes a one of the greatest blessings to both you and them.
It’s enthusiasm; it’s poetry; it’s beauty. It’s giving others the tools to be strong, to be wise, to be funny, to be radical. It’s all those things – and it just makes you smile.
More than anything, we see highlighted that the thing most of us want is restoration of broken relationships; reconciliation; redemption. The relationship highlighted in this story is that of Father and Son, but the principle goes to all relationship types, mothers & daughters, sisters, brothers, friends, lovers. I’ll simply say this – we all need to put aside our anger, our petty differeneces, our important differences. The pain we’ve inflicted and that is inflicted on us comes to nothing compared to the pain of that torn heart that results from a broken friendship.
But it’s never too late to step back into someone’s life or invite them back into yours. As Ray and his dad show us, it doesn’t have to be an intense moment, a deep apology session. Just a greeting and taking part in something simple and ordinary together – in their case, a game of catch. Remember though, Forgiveness and reconciliation is more than just saying in your head “I forgive my dad”, it’s re-inviting them into your life, it’s welcoming them into your every day existence. Not ignoring what they did, but relegating it to the place of unimportance, compared to the Love you can share (Love = Affection, Friendship Love, Agape/unconditional/sacrificial,).
The First Step is yours. IF you build it she/he will come. Ease their Pain. Go the distance.
That Story Girl 