Day 42: Brave People Need People, 100 Days to Brave (Advent, Day 4)

My uncle, Jon, used to own a video store. The real authentic 80's type, where you would go in and look over a wall of movie covers, hoping something would grab your attention, or the latest Home Alone wasn't already all rented-out to others and you were stuck with Drop Dead Fred, again.

As a child, I was head-over-heels in luurve with Macaulay Culkin and once, after the Home Alone phase died down just enough that my uncle would no longer need it, uncle Jon gifted me with a cardboard cutout of Kevin McCallister.
I kissed it faithfully every night before bed.
It was propped right next to me.
SL+MC4E

Years later, as a early-twenty-something, uncle Jon gifted me with a poster of Hugh Grant from, About a Boy. It was this one:
                                                

I hung it proudly in my basement bedroom at the Queen of Angeles hospital turned LA Dream Center. In that room, I also had a sink with a pedal.
 
There is an ongoing dialogue in About a Boy, and it was the first time I had heard of this theory. This theory that, perhaps, we all need one another. Perhaps life was not meant to be lived apart from others. Perhaps community is beyond nice, but truly necessary.

*****

Will: All men are islands. And what's more, this is the time to be one. This is an island age. A hundred years ago, for example, you had to depend on other people. No one had TV or CDs or DVDs or home espresso makers. As a matter of fact they didn't have anything cool. Whereas now you can make yourself a little island paradise. With the right supplies, and more importantly the right attitude, you can become sun-drenched, tropical, a magnet for young Swedish tourists.

Will: [thinking] Every man is an island. I stand by that. But clearly some men are island CHAINS. Underneath, they are connected...

Marcus: [thinking] I used to think two was not enough. But now things are great; there are loads of people... I don't know what Will was so pissed about. I don't think couples are the future. The way I see it now, we both got back-up now. It's like that thing Jon Bon Jovi said: 'No man is an island.'  (IMBd quotes)

*****
The gist of this is simple: no man is an island.  Although I didn't trademark this, I believe it.
John Donne, he first penned this.

The Bible says it this way: It is better off to have a friend than to be all alone, because then you will get more enjoyment out of what you earn. If you fall, your friend can help you up. But if you fall without having a friend nearby, you are really in trouble. -Ecc. 4:9-10

Be Brave: 

Send a letter to a friend who had been there for you before. 

Thank him or her. 

Tell your friend how much he or she means to you. 

Advent, Day 4: 

The Lady