Lessons by the Lake

As a child, I would sometimes accompany my dad to the barbershop in our small hometown. I found it entertaining watching the barbers shine customers’ shoes, meticulously shave men’s faces, then cut, and style their hair. Though I certainly don’t recall any of the conversations that took place during my visits so long ago, I do remember the talk was lively among the acquaintances and friends who frequented the shop. Thus, it seemed to me an interesting place in which to set this fictional story.

Lessons by the Lake was a project that I began writing in 2009. It has been written and updated prayerfully with the intent that it encourage thought and inspire within the reader a desire to consider more deeply who God is. The characters’ dialogs regarding their personal beliefs offer opportunities to reflect.

There is a passage in the Bible where Jesus Christ asks his disciples: “Who do men say that I am?” and then addressing another of his friends asks, “Who do you say that I am?” After reading that passage some time ago, I wondered if being open to letting God answer that question more deeply for us, might be the ultimate purpose of each person’s life journey. This conversation between the Lord and his close companions inspired Lessons by the Lake. Jay, the barber and some of his customers are portrayed discussing their points of view regarding the question of who God is.

The humor used in the dialog between the patrons and Jay, the barber, is intended to represent our human proclivity for teasing.

The character, Oliver, is an example of a person living rather self-sufficiently, not wanting to bother anyone by admitting that he’s grieving and emotionally hurting. He is the common man, wrestling with a common question. Where is God and does he care about human suffering?

Within the activity surrounding unfortunate illness and accidents, interesting visitors and staff at Mercy Hospital become part of a spiritual awakening that moves among patient, beyond the medical institution’s doors and into the questioning hearts of some townspeople. As a result, a renewal of compassion begins.

I chose the name of the barbershop because it was descriptive. It seemed necessary to put a little more effort into explaining the service of shoe shining since it may not be as common a service offered in barbershops today. Choosing nine customers as the number of regulars frequenting the shop had to do with word rhyming. The number nine rhymes with the shop name, Jay’s Cut and Shine, and since I’m a poet at heart, rhyming a chapter title was fun. The dialog, names of characters and places however, are fictional.

Conversations among the barbershop patrons in the first few chapters imply an unhealthy obsession. I felt it necessary to portray the proprietor (Jay) honoring defenders of the oppressed and vulnerable, while still in learning process regarding his conversational habits. The proprietor’s own weaknesses reinforces that it is possible for negative attitudes to change for the better within awareness, mercy and grace, if a person is willing. Extreme cases may sometimes require an intervention to bring about a change of attitude. Without exception, it requires the Divine to live within an attitude of forgiveness.

When the scene changes from the barbershop (everyday routine) to a hospital, we observe the main characters’ human vulnerabilities. Within emergency vehicles and Mercy Hospital, visitors and professionals are responding to the injured with medical help, compassion and spiritual hope. Was God among them?