Living in Our Own “Far Country”

Yesterday morning I wrote about an Air Force chaplain friend of many years ago and of my inner urge over the last several days to locate him. I’m happy to report a fruitful search.  My 86-year-old chaplain friend has been found.  Last night we communicated via LinkedIn and Email—and this morning we will talk by phone.  

In 2009, I experienced a similar urge to locate another “lost” friend.  We lost our connection in 1964.  He, too, was found after a long search that stretched from Minnesota, to North Dakota, and finally to Florida. We now communicate with one another almost every day via Email and we have visited several times over the last ten years.

We are all prodigal sons, daughters, and friends (as in the story of the Prodigal Son,  who left home for a far country—Luke 15).  We wander off to our own “far countries” and become engaged in our own work, family, and new friends.  We never forget those we knew in our earlier days (back home, or in another place, another time), but we lose our connection with them.  This separation occurs in every person’s journey and is as natural as growing old.

We lose so many friends through the years and most of these are lost forever, because they no longer fit into our “far countries,” and we do not fit in theirs.  Thomas Wolfe said,  “You Can’t Go Home Again,” and that, I think,  is reality.  

I may live in my own “far country,” but sometimes it is meaningful to reconnect,  to touch base with someone from another time, another place, knowing that they will be living in their “far country” just as I am living in mine.  What we can share is the “far country” we once knew together.  Sometimes that can be a very pleasant and meaningful experience.

The choir of iris are singing...