I’m sitting in a car with Roby.

She didn’t get a morning walk and we went to visit a friend. She fell asleep about 5 minutes before we arrived, and we don’t want to screw up her sleep by waking her up. We often say that waking a sleeping Roby is a crime. Or maybe a sin. Or maybe both.

So I’m writing here in the car beside a sleeping Roby.

I’m not in a very good mood. Maybe because I’m fasting and I don’t feel like I’ve been doing it properly. Or maybe because things are strange and tiring and it’s too hot for November first.

Who knows. Not me.

I’ve begun playing that role playing game I play. I’ve made a zealously passionate orthodox character. I control his every thought and move, but I am not beholden to his passions. From the distance of a keyboard I can deny his hunger, his thirst, his lust, his wrath. It is very easy to make him a perfect Christian as far as self denial goes. It’s a fun exercise. Maybe I can learn a thing or two from him.

After she woke up we went in and had vegan lentil soup. Not because any of us are Vegan, but because we’re doing an Orthodox fast, and that means being Vegan. At least it does most of the time. I try not to eat at all, but that might be more trouble than I can handle right now. It might be counter productive. 

The soup was healing, and the conversation was lovely. 

The person we visited is a friend from church, and she is lovely. Friends from church are lovely in a way that is unique in the history of friends I have had. We’ve spent perhaps, a handful of hours, two tops (handfuls), but there is a sort of knowing blossoming there that is really quite beautiful. An implicit trust and mutual excitement that is unique to me. 

A friend from church explained it well when he said that he went about twenty minutes out of his way to drop his dog off with a friend from church rather than a closer friend he knew he could trust. It’s just about keeping it in house, in the community, he said. And that feels right. 

In the same way that, all things being equal, I would choose someone I know for a job, or a roommate, or whatever, that goes doubly so for a member of our church. Maybe that’s naive and will bite me some day. We’ll see.