What We Lose...

On Blake's recommendation, I started to read C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Observed" today. It's basically his journal of what it was like grieving over the death of his wife. Truth rings louder in the book than it would have two weeks ago.

Lewis stated that one of his greatest fears is of forgetting, and when I read that I gave a hearty "Amen." I've got pictures and memories and other people to remind me, but I'm terrified to death of forgetting Kyle's voice and laugh and facial expressions.

The people we made fun of the most were the people who most thought they had it together. We used to mimick those people.

I kept many of the emails he sent, and I'm glad. A couple of weeks ago I asked him to critique my preaching. In the midst of his reply he said...

"At this point in the conversation, I'd probably go into a long discourse on how that very difference lies at the heart of postmodernism but you probably wouldn't get it so I'll save that for my smarter friends."

While talking about an exercise of Scripture reading practiced by Ignatius, he wrote this...

"And yes, Ignatius was from the 16th century, not the 15th. You
were probably thinking 15th."

Those are some of the things I miss.

I started this post wanting to tell about Kyle's humor and how I'll miss it more than anything. In doing so I perused dozens of emails and realized there are things I will miss ten times more. They are the short emails. The one's that read, simply...

From : Kyle Lake
Sent : Wednesday, June 8, 2005 1:57 PM
To : "Craig Nash"
Subject : reading

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Hey--I've just now begun reading the David Sedaris book you got me about 8 years ago--Me Talk Pretty One Day. Let the reading begin!



And...

From : Kyle Lake
Sent : Tuesday, March 8, 2005 3:51 AM
To : "Craig Nash"

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hey dude--what's up?

down here in Houston doing Birkman training...I'm absolutely loving this stuff (so far)
I'll fill you in more when I get back. Very fascinating stuff.

Kyle



And the one I'll miss the most, that came almost every Monday morning...

From : Kyle Lake
Sent : Wednesday, August 25, 2004 3:17 AM
To : "Craig Nash"

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What's happening with ya this week?





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That's what tears me up inside.