Kindred Spirits

Kindred spirits are something most people treasure if they happen to find them. The trick is in doing just that.

I remember when I was small and discovered my first best friend. His name was Paul and he lived across the street. I was three and he was four and we both liked to play in his toy room with his sister, Julie. Eventually I moved away and I never saw either one again.

Later on, in kindergarten I met my other two best friends. We liked to play marbles, ride our bikes and sometimes play chess, but years passed and I moved away again.

For a while I had two girls who were my best friends, one a year older and one two years old whose birthday was the exact same day as mine! But, when one got to junior high and the other to high school, we drifted apart. I was just too young for them at that point.

Best friends came and went in my life mostly due to a lot of moving. It's hard to stay in touch even with the best of intentions when you are a child far away.

It is hard to do that long distance as an adult too, although it does happen, but most of my adult life I have been looking for kindred spirits who live close and share things that are important to both of us. I don't know if it's hard for everyone, or just me, but I find it is not an easy thing to do.

My beliefs can make it difficult for me to be part of most groups. I'm not a natural joiner. But there are things in my nature which do come quite naturally. One is teaching, one is writing, one is being very independent and when I was at the aviation museum for the volunteer dinner the other night, I realized that I was in among a group of people who share many things.

We all have a great interest in aviation. Most of us are night owls! This is the largest group of people I have ever known who are as likely to send me an email at 2 AM as 2 PM. We are reliable. If we say we will do something, we will. Many of us are teachers. I think all of us are thinkers and we are listeners. We love innovative ideas and are willing to stick our necks out to try things that might benefit others. I'm as close as I have ever been to a group of people who share many of my core values.

As I sat there eating platefuls of pizza and topped them off with frosted brownies and chocolate chip cookies and strawberries, I realized this was about as close as it gets to being surrounded by kindred spirits.