Homeboys

And 13 days later, in the immortal words of Randy Quaid (in this particular instance, playing psycho pilot Russell Casse) at the end of the movie Independence Day, "I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAACK!" (Seriously, that is one of the single most hilarious movie endings I've ever seen. You should check it out some time.)

So every Wednesday evening, I meet with a group of girls at roughly my age and stage of life ~ i.e., 20s-ish college graduates who are now grad students or professionals & haven't yet hit the marriage-&-kids stage. We always discuss a chapter or two of either the Bible or some other written work of philosophy/theology. At present, we're in the middle of Philip Yancey's Rumours of Another World (no, that isn't a typo, and yes, there is a big fat "U" smack in the middle of the word "Rumours" on the front of my book). It paints, in vivid brushstrokes ranging from chord-strikingly, universally broad to intimately, historically detailed, the author's ideas regarding the existence, proof, and significance of the supernatural/spiritual world ~ a world at once above and beyond, and yet inextricably entwined with, the physical world, the here-and-now full of what we humans can see, hear, and touch. Yancey highlights major themes such as sex, sin, and guilt, describes various ways in which we humans experience them, then suggests various ways in which these experiences point to the necessary existence of a second side to reality. That side, suggests Yancey, is an "invisible world" that is no less real than the visible one: a world from which God speaks to everyone, however faintly; a world whose glory is faintly reflected in the insanely perfect and perfectly insane beauty of nature; a world where the consequences of our day-to-day decisions matter and manifest themselves in our consciences and souls; a world that flashes into ours when we experience surging, intense desires for something more than the achingly concrete existences experienced by our five senses.

For an author tackling such weighty and in some cases controversial matter, Yancey presents his ideas in a surprisingly user-friendly manner, reminiscent of Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz, without sacrificing the necessary intellectual gravity. His insights, I think, would resound with any adult who's lived in the real world for any length of time, and his applications of them flow with a natural logic that I've tried and failed to find in so many modern Christian works, whether they be books, sermons, or other matter. That's the gist of what I told one of the girls in the group when she asked me how I was liking Rumours so far, and that opinion has only solidified as we've read further into the book. In fact, during one recent study session, I blurted out that Philip Yancey was, in my book, approaching "homeboy status."

After everybody had finished laughing at yet another of my absurdly uncensored "insights," I started thinking about the word "homeboy" and why I'd used it. I understood it to normally mean one's friend, or somebody with which one shares a particularly close emotional kinship. In this particular instance, I used it to mean that Yancey was fast on his way to a very special place in my esteemed estimations of authors, speakers, and other purveyors of words and ideas ~ a haven I have reserved exclusively for those whose insights and articulations I consider so eloquent, inspirational and moving without being impossibly intellectual or condescending that I actually take the trouble to remember their words and refer to them often when making arguments or relating my views about important spiritual/philosophical/theological issues. In short, in order to consider somebody a "homeboy" of mine, I must be a different person intellectually, academically, and even spiritually after reading (or listening to) that person's ideas.

After my study-session outburst, I realized that my personal definition of "homeboy" might be all well and good in my mind, but complete gibberish to a more learned member of modern-day society, seeing as how I have this insane propensity to appropriate sweet little law-abiding citizens of Webster's Dictionary (or any dictionary of the English language, for that matter) and use them to serve completely different purposes from those for which their originators intended them. Hence, for example, my insistence on using the word "Glock" as not a noun describing a certain type of firearm, but a verb meaning "to attach" (as in, "Oh, shoot, my printer's missing a cord and I can't print out my blog posting!" "C-H-I-double-hockey-sticks, honey...just glock the thing to my printer, and you'll be fine." Which brings up a very disturbing mental image of a remote-controlled Glock mounted to my computer, making me the world's most dangerously armed blogger, but moving on...). So I figured that before I started going around describing Philip Yancey or C.S. Lewis in a way any normal, sane person would interpret as meaning that those distinguished gentlement actually live in my cute little cellar dwelling, I'd better look it up in the dictionary already. So, child of the Internet age that I am, I went to www.dictionary.com and typed "homeboy" into the search box. Up popped a page with two definitions each from four major sources. The short, gender-neutral description from Dictionary.com Unabridged read:

"1. a person from the same locality as oneself.
2. Slang. a close friend or fellow gang member."

The slightly more descriptive WordNet definition elaborated:

"1. a fellow male member of a youth gang
2. a male friend from your neighborhood or hometown"

Great, I initially thought. I have officially accused some of the world's greatest authors of being gang members. Another Sarah Joan gem. But then I began to focus on the other part of the definition and realized that my original interpretation of the word, the one emphasizing kinship, hadn't been too far off base. When I refer to the following authors as my "homeboys," I am describing them as people who come from the same ideological neighborhood as myself ~ writers whose thoughts have simultaneously mirrored and nurtured mine ~ and they can't do that without hailing from a similar mental and spiritual locality, or neighborhood. It is largely because of reading, questioning, and appropriating their ideas and insights that I have been able to understand, at however basic a level, the principles about faith, good, evil, guilt, inadequacy, hypocrisy, depression, sacrifice, redemption, and salvation that form my own intellectual and spiritual foundation. Their ideas have helped expand my mental horizons wide enough to understand life beyond the tightly-wrapped cocoon of rigid regulatory codes in which I spent my childhood ~ wide enough to understand that faith is more than rules, that God is more than just the Great Big Law-Enforcer in the Sky, and that redemption is more than one formulaic, repeat-after-me prayer. When my rules, regulations, and perfectionism finally failed me, my "homeboys" introduced me to a much more complicated reality: a world where even well-meaning people with the "right" beliefs disagree and screw up; where right and wrong are anything but black-and-white at times; where people labeled "good" in the rulebooks of my childhood act insanely cruel and "evil" people act kind, generous, and open-minded; and where the only hope of surviving this complicated and messed-up existence is knowing that there is another world entwined with the one I can see, a world where I and my choices matter, a world whose Ruler loves me more than He loves all the rules in my head. In other words, I believe the Rumours. They make sense to me.

And now to give a shout-out to my Homeboys:

* St. Augustine (Confessions)
* Martin Luther (anything, especially his letters)
* C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity; the Chronicles of Narnia series; letters)
* J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings; various letters)

Seriously, I highly recommend reading any work by these giants of philosophy and theology (especially the works in parentheses). They're well worth the time and effort. And, just for the record, so is Rumours.

WORKS CITED: No, I am not in college any more, but yes, I still believe in giving credit where credit is due. (The citations are in the Chicago style.)

Yancey, Philip. Rumours of Another World: What on Earth Are We Missing? Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.

homeboy. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homeboy (accessed: November 14, 2008).

homeboy. Dictionary.com. WordNet® 3.0. Princeton University. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/homeboy (accessed: November 14, 2008).