And The Combo Is...

Over the weekend I was standing on the shore of the Colorado River, and handed Nate probably the biggest skipping stone I could find, and challenged him to skip it. All of us held our breath as Nate held the rock (probably the size of a watermelon) and spun around to throw it. To our utter amazement the rock splashed off the surface of the water into the hugest arc I've ever seen a skipped stone make, and then hit the surface to skip again! All in slow motion too, mind you, it was unbelievable! Truly, had the right officials and record keepers been standing by, it would have set a new world record for the largest stone ever skipped.

But really, I would have been more surprised if the rock hadn't skipped at all. That's just the way things work out with Nate. He reminds me of the character, Finny,  in my favorite book, 'A Separate Peace'. There is a moment in the book when Finny is playing around in the school pool and notices the record-holder for the '100 yard free style' swim, which is posted on a bronze plaque near the pool. The record was 53.0 seconds, swam by A. Hopkins Parker, a boy who graduated before Finny ever got to the school.

Here are some excerpts from the book (written from Finny's friend, Gene's point of view):

"You mean that record has been up there the whole time we've been at Devon and nobody's busted it yet?" It was an insult to the class, and Finny had tremendous loyalty to the class, as he did to any group he belonged to, beginning with him and me and radiating outward past the limits of humanity toward spirits and clouds and stars...
He said blurringly, "I have a feeling I can swim faster than A. Hopkins Parker."
We found a stop watch in the office. He mounted a starting box, leaned forward from the waist as he had seen racing swimmers do but never had occasion to do himself...
...I looked at the watch; he had broken A. Hopkins Parker's record by .7 seconds.
...The Devon School record books contained a mistake, a lie, and nobody knew it but Finny and me. A. Hopkins Parker was living in a fool's paradise, wherever he was. His defeated name remained in bronze on the school record plaque, while Finny deliberately evaded an athletic honor... ...The sports Finny played officially - football, hockey, baseball, lacrosse - didn't have school records. To switch to a new sport suddenly, just for the day, and immediately break a record in it - that was about as neat a trick, as dazzling a reversal as I could, to be perfectly honest, possibly imagine.
..."Swimming in pools is screwy anyway." he said after a long, unusual silence as we walked toward the dormitory. "The only real swimming is in the ocean." Then in the everyday, mediocre tone he used when he was proposing something really outrageous, he added "Let's go to the beach."

I love 'A Separate Peace', I love Finny, and Nate is just like him. Last week Nate and I were hanging out in my room and he was admiring my blue filing cabinet and I lamented that I had never seen the safe door open because my friend Magnus never knew the combo. Nate said "I bet I can open it", pressed his ear to the padlock, twisted the dial.. next thing I knew the door was ajar!

I haven't closed the door yet, because he left and didn't write down the combination. But every time I glance at that open door I am reminded how fun it is to have a Nate Evans in my life. I just love Nate. He is passionate, determined and skilled at everything he puts his mind to, but also operates with the perfect balance of humor, flexibility and style. And even though I feel like he can out-perform me in anything we happen to be doing together, I never feel put down or stupid around him. I think some of the best friends are ones that you don't have to worry about being friends with. There are times when I don't see Nate for weeks on end, or there are times when I see him on the daily. There are times when he doesn't want to come to Provo when there is something fun going on, but then there are times when he comes along (with my family) on lame outings, to organ concerts, so I don't feel so nervous when I see an old love.

There is something so gratifying about a friendship like that: easy, simple, unspoken, honest.

I don't think Nate reads this blog all that often these days, and I'm not even sure why I felt the need to write this. I guess that open safe door in my room just got to me. Not just thinking of Nate, but of all the good people I have in my life that I am lucky enough to call friends and neighbors. There are countless times my life has been truly blessed by the many good examples that surround me. It is over-whelming when I think of all the different personalities that I have learned from and admire. I am a better person because of the people God has placed in my path. And perhaps I have all these people in my life because God knew I needed help opening all the right "doors" to becoming a better wiser human. I still have a long way to go, so thanks for letting me learn from you.