Life on the Sea

I spent the weekend with the Allens, and of course had a fabulous time. Enjoyable conversations, home cooked meals, Saturday afternoon projects around the house, and the hanging out down at the local restaurant on the dock (you can look through the floorboards down into the turquoise water below you). David kept handing me the phone with whoever we was talking to, putting the person on the phone and myself in a somewhat awkward situation. "Here Charles, this is my friend Ben. He's a priest from Seattle." (David never lets the truth get in the way of a good story).

Different folk came floating into the Allens' house through the weekend. David is probably the most well-connected-extroverted person I've ever met. He loves people, loves telling stories, and loves to laugh. It seems like every ten minutes his mind is drawn to another person that comes to mind and he calls them up and chats it up with them.

David recently finished a book on Shame, and he gave me one of the draft versions to read. It's quite insightful and helpful. He's been digging out different writings I've done and has been encouraging me to write a book! We'll see if that happens. "Man, you're a great writer. I think some of your stuff could take off. I've got a publisher, so just put it together man! I'm thinking the name of your book should be The Beauty of Holiness. Yea, the beauty of holiness. Yea. yea." He makes me laugh.

The most shocking part of the weekend was when David suggested for the second time that I should move into their back guestroom. He said they got plenty of room, they enjoy me being around, and that they want to help out the school by giving me housing for free. I didn't have to think about it for too long. "Okay, yeah that sounds good." Viki agreed that she would be happy for me to move in. We kept talking about it over the weekend. It was decided that I would need to buy a scooter to make the 25 min commute, and let my landlord that I was moving out fairly soon. So I'm thinking I'll move out the beautiful beach house the second week of November!