cc: file, Diane Cluff, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Sara and Des Penny, Grandma Hafen via Tony Hafen, Claude and Katherine Warner, and Lloyd and Luana Warner.
"Last week's Thoughtlet obviously resonated. I got an e-mail response refering to it from all four of you who receive these via e-mail. One was embarrassed, which again I apologize for, since there was zero intention to embarrass. The other three were pretty positive. I expect this is a normal response to recognition of sin and an expression of remorse. I hope you all realize how sorry I am for my mistakes and particularly for my sins.
Rob was with me this weekend and he asked me a couple of times, `Dad, what are you going to write about this week?' I told him I didn't have a topic yet. In thinking back over the week, I decided to write about friends. Largely because a couple of my friends visited me on Saturday, starting with when Rob was asleep on the couch.
John Denham spent most of Saturday with me. John was the Chief Geophysicist for BHP Petroleum (Broken Hill Proprietary, the largest company in Australia) when I first met him in Oslo. We were at the EAEG (European Association of Exploration Geophysicists), the first convention Landmark went to, in the spring of 1983. We didn't have a product finalized yet, and we had pretty good designs, which we put on a portable booth and talked from. I was talking to Alistair Brown, the GSI (Geophysical Services, Inc.) geophysical spokesman about GSI's ISIS (Interactive Seismic Interpretation System), when John came up behind him and said with his out-back Australian drawl, `It'll never work!' I immediately liked him. (Especially, since later in the week Alistair took your Mom out on the dance floor, she seemed to really enjoy it, and she didn't want to dance with me.) So after Alistair left I told John what we were doing. He said it sounded interesting. So I challenged him, `You bring some data to the SEG in Las Vegas on a 9-track tape, and if we load it on the workstation and do what we say we can do, you buy a system.' He did, we did, and BHP ended up with the first delivered Landmark workstation, which was serial number 2 because of a contract with ICI Petroleum (Imperial Chemical Inc. in London). We have been friends since then. I visited him on one of my trips around the world. He visited with us several times. He rode from a convention in New Orleans back to Houston with me, and we were so busy talking I wasn't watching the road and got a speeding ticket. We looked at pictures, he talked about all the stuff going on in his life, we did some Dutch Oven potatoes, grilled a 2 pound Steelhead Trout, made some cobbler, and enjoyed a laid back Saturday in the beautiful backyard with asolutely wonderful weather. If everything I am working on works out right, I am going to take any of you who are interested in going, over to Australia in the spring of 1999 to spend a couple of weeks with John and Jane in the outback of Australia and on his sailing ship. Anyone want to go with me to meet my friend again?
When John got to the house Rob was on the couch in the living room. We talked for a couple of hours and he didn't even stir. During the time we were talking, my friend Joe Roberts came by to see me. Joe always wants to sell me something. This time he wanted to sell my house, and have me buy a new house down by Corey Grua, where he is going to build a new house. His logic is good, and there are a lot of financial reasons to sell the house in an up market. However, I tried so hard to create the same kind of positive memories I have about my parents house, including commissioning Ken Turner to paint the paintings for you, it is very hard for me to walk away from the house right now. In thinking about it since Joe came by, I am either going to sell it, lease it, or let someone like Ben and Sarah stay in it starting sometime in 1999, and I think I will build a house for me in my own image. Scary thought, isn't it? It would be nice to have a companion to soften my radical approaches. Any progress will depend on what happens with my friends John Amason and Ron Burgerner and the new business we are pursuing. It is interesting how we get ideas from our friends.
Rob, it wasn't long after Joe Roberts left that your best friend Joe Amason showed up at the house. It was funny listening to you explain how you and Joe have been friends since before they were born. When you said `Our Mom's had rubbed bellies,' I did tell you, you probably shouldn't brag about that. Joe and Rob spent much of Saturday playing Star Trek Monopoly. While they were playing Rob's long time friend, and our old neighbor, David Hergenrotter called. It was funny listening to how you talked about how wierd I am, and something about straws and pulling my T-shirt over my head to work in the yard. It was good to hear the laughter, to hear the good memories, and to have friends running through the house, and playing in the swimming pool again.
Melanie, it reminded me of something you said when you had lunch with me last Sunday. We got talking about one of your best friends for 13 years, and how when she left town, she didn't even make the effort to say good-bye to you. I could tell it hurt a lot. It is so sad to see the effect of drugs and poor choices on those we care about. Roice, you talked in your e-mail about some of your good friends and how much you enjoys spending time with them, riding bikes, and just hanging out. I really don't understand why it is so important for all of you kids to be so social. I wonder if you are reacting to my being comfortable being by myself and with myself and if you are making up for me not spending enough time with you. Anyway, Ben, you have talked about your friends in a similar manner. I remember how you felt like your x-roommate Chad would always be your best friend. As you and Sarah get ready for June 6th, I see this changing. I hope you and Sarah will find the same kind of friendship you thought you had found with some of your soccer buddies. Sara has similar friends. With her male friends she shows some emotional maturity I think most of the rest of us are missing. It does hurt sometimes when she would rather spend Spring Break or a school holiday with friends than with me. However, I expect this will pass at some point, and I look forward to her coming back and becoming a real and close friend.
Paul, I feel from your letters you are truly finding what friendship is all about. I keep running into the Sister Missionary who knew you at the Mission Home, and she has asked whether you have all been sent out of Russia, and how you are doing. There is an eternal friendship in the gospel, which I have had the opportunity of sharing with folks like Rick Hawthorne, John Bennett, Ken and Judy Yano, and others. Sometimes, like in my lack of responding to John's last letter, I am the one who lets the friendship down. However, I know that if they ever need me, or if I ever needed them, all that is necessary is notification and time and resources will be shared.
Friends are important. Especially in times of trial. Back on April 21st of 1996 I sttarted a new song, which has become centered around friends. So far it has 119 verses, one set of 119 verses directly quoting from the Book of Job in the Old Testament, and one set of 119 verses personallizing the story. Of all of the songs I have written it has the best tune and I expect you will enjoy the beat and rhythm when I finally get around to finishing it and recording it. It only goes to the 7th chapter of Job so far. To give you a taste of how these scriptures write about friends:
In my song, Ed Gray was Eliphaz, Riley Skeen was Bildad, Ray Gardner was Zophar, and Rick was Elihu. In your song, I hope you all realize the world will continue when we make a mistake. It will be easier for us if we recognize them as soon as possible, repent, and get on with the rest of our life, realizing we will make new mistakes and commit new sins of which we will have need to repent of. The good news is there is a way prepared for us from the foundations of the world by which we can have our mistakes and sins taken from our minds and our memories and off our backs. I know that way, I have strived my best to teach each of you that way by word and by example, and I hope you find it before someone who is a false friend leads you into a great and spacious building you are unable to escape from when it crashes into the filthy river flowing at it's foot. My true friend's name is Jesus, and he is there, ready to embrace us in his love."