Knowing Who Gets Your Bombas Socks

If you have ever bought a pair of Bombas socks I want to say thanks. These were being spread around the Place of Peace Meal last night. Just in case you have bought Bombas socks and wondered where the extra pair of socks went, some of them went to some of my friends last night.

I am pretty partial to Darn Tough Vermont socks but seeing these passed around last night has me thinking the world of Bombas at the moment.

Which reminds me of a quote from Stevenson’s book (actually from his grand mother) that I took a photo of to remember. Here it is:

"You can't understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close"
“You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close

His grandmother’s statement “You can’t understand most of the important things from a distance, Bryan. You have to get close” is profound truth. Reminds me of Shane Claiborne saying “I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.”

Most of us seem to self-segregate ourselves into groups who are almost exactly like us, or t least we pretend to be exactly like each other. Then we view (or again we at least pretended that) these problems as(are) outside ourselves and not affecting those we love. When we think of poverty, mental illness, addiction, incarceration, or any number of other non-related and related issues, we think in abstractions, rather than thinking of people we already love. I believe such self-segregation also leads to us and our friends feeling that we must hide our weaknesses and struggles, lest we be slowly be segregated out of our group.

If we would get up close and personal we would realize that when we talk about so many issues we are actually talking about our friends. We may, and probably will, still disagree on the solutions to such issues but we will at least be focused on trying to best help those we love, rather than just making sure our team wins an argument.

SIDE NOTE – Eric Glaze just got me. I am presently at Ruby Coffee reading “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson and sent a photo to him mocking him a little bit. He responded by sending me a photo of myself at sitting at Ruby. Really freaked me out since I couldn’t see him anywhere. Turns out some friends of his are sitting across from me and they sent him the photo.

I’m just glad I wasn’t doing something stupid or obnoxious.

Well played sir.