14. "From Detroit down to Houston, and New York to LA..."

This might sound silly, but I love it when the people in a particular group hail from various parts of the country (and in some cases, the world).

Case in point: tonight, a group of us went out for burgers and beers to welcome our friend Austin back from his trip to Africa. Among the states represented by this handful of USC alumni: Washington, Alabama, New Jersey, Minnesota, Nevada, and well, yes, California.

This was also the case yesterday, when a group of my friends from church got together for lunch after the service: Indiana, Michigan, Colorado, California, Nevada, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Missoura* were all represented.

And for what it's worth, back in New York, the group of twenty-somethings from my small church in Queens represented an even more unique set of homelands: the U.S.--Iowa, Virginia, and Nevada (if you couldn't tell by now, the Silver State is represented by none other than yours truly)--Canada, England, Serbia-Montenegro, Mexico, Peru, France, Japan, even Burma.

You get the idea. I feel pretty blessed to have found community with people who come from here, there, and everywhere.

No reason in particular. It's just a fun thing to think about from time to time: the places we've come from, the people we meet, the ways we learn and grow from interacting with one another.

I suppose that could just be the pilsner talking, though.



*This is how I tend to pronounce the proper name of the Show-Me State, thanks to an episode of The Simpsons, wherein Grandpa Simpson, when asked why an American flag he was displaying only had 49 stars, replies, "I'll be dead in the cold, cold ground 'fore I recognize Missoura."