mobs

I recently noticed that the TV shows I watch are mostly about groups of people - the cul de sac crew, the modern family, the CBI and Hawaii 5.0 teams, etc.  I like how the groups each have a special a spot to meet, like MacLaren's pub or the conference room at Dunder Mifflin or Jule's kitchen.  I like to watch the different personalities annoy and enrich each other.  I enjoy their witty banter and teasing.  And I love how, against drug dealers or petty neighbors, they always end up having each other's backs.  

Eugene Peterson, in Leap Over A Wall writes "Friendship is a much underestimated aspect of spirituality. It's ever bit as significant as prayer and fasting.  Like the sacramental use of water and bread and wine, friendship takes what's common in human experience and turns it into something holy.  Martin Buber said the greatest thing any person can do for another is to confirm the deepest thing in him, in her - to take the time and have the discernment to see what's most deeply there, most fully that person, and then confirm it by recognizing and encouraging it."


This morning my hunt for a certain patient led me to a large hall crowded with women in wheelchairs.  I found my patient, sat beside her and listened to her comment on the other women - "the one who is always with her doll, the one that talks too loud, the one that never eats her soup.."  It was fun hearing about her world.  Then a man wheeled up and parked in front of one of the ladies.  Another lady wheeled in and couldn't get through.  She bumped several wheelchairs as she tried to manuver.  This caused a bit of a cat fight.  I jumped in to rewheel, make a path, and assure the bumpees nothing was done maliciously.  When everything settled back down I again sat with my lady.  She turned to me smiling, "Its kind of fun to be part of a mob once in awhile, isn't it?"


It sure is!  I'm so thankful for all the wonderful people that make up my mobs.  I couldn't do it without you...