In short, Sam Pepys is every housemate I’ve ever had. In the more recent “A Faraway State of Mind” series installments, specifically #5, the inspiration for his role has finally begun to round into shape as the guy I lived with for the year-plus after college. But for the sake of sharing this gratitude, I will treat Sam as every housemate I’ve ever had, and still continue to have. Similar with Thomas More, I named the character after another pet of a childhood family friend of my mom’s, who had named him after an English diarist and naval administrator in the late 17th century.
Like I mentioned above, Sam had no muse, and is truly the first
character among those I have mentioned with no true muse. To backtrack, from
ages 10 to 15 I wrote a novella or short novel (word count is approximately
40,000). With some exceptions, Sam often tagged along with the Thomas More
character wherever he went, almost certainly paralleling the aforementioned
cats of my mom’s friend’s, from whom they were named, based on the fact that
those cats were housemates. Years after I wrapped up the novella/short novel
and began writing the first installments of “A Faraway State of Mind,” I didn’t
really have any character names lined up for the stories I wanted to write. So
I borrowed several of the names from this childhood book: Thomas More, Sam
Pepys, Bosendorfer, Maggie, Jed Berger, and Steinway. At least for the first
couple of stories, both of which I posted almost one right after the other, these
names were enough to get me through.
However, over the subsequent stories, I never developed
Sam’s character. It was primarily due to the fact that, having set him up as
Thomas’ housemate in “A Faraway State of Mind,” and that most of the action was
elsewhere, there wasn’t much I could really do.
That all said, I wanted to take this post to express my
gratitude for several of the various (non-parental) roommates and housemates
I’ve had over the years:
- I’m grateful for my housemate I lived with for a little over a year after college. He made it possible for me to move in easily, with an apartment ready to go (he had already lived there for a little while). Although we occasionally butted heads here and there, he in fact gave me a lot more grace for my mistakes and my not understanding of how things worked in life, compared with most other people I knew. Unlike others, he had enough humility to understand that he wasn’t perfect (and walked that out in his day-to-day life). I noticed this most starkly when I first moved back up to Minnesota on a whim to look for work. I was up there for almost 3 weeks, the first half with a few other friends in Minneapolis, and the second half with the man who would eventually become my housemate officially just a month later. After a week with my friends in Minneapolis, one (or more) of them approached me and said that if I stayed much longer I would have to begin paying rent (I was almost broke as it was, and I was already paying for my own groceries and other things). My second friend (and eventual housemate) said that I could stay as long as I needed.
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. Colossians 3:12-13, NKJV
- I’m also grateful for my roommate in my senior year of college, who was also one of my best friends at the time. I’m also grateful that our roommate-ship did not sabotage our friendship in the least. We were able to live side-by-side, have quality “friend” time together but also operate on our own schedules.
- I’m grateful for my summer roommate between junior and senior years, for the short while that he was in fact there (he spent much of the summer sleeping elsewhere, so I rarely saw him after the first few weeks). But what was especially cool was that this was a guy who, before he arrived at campus as a freshman (he was a year behind me in school), rumors had already begun swirling around that he was already a better-skilled concert pianist than anyone else currently on campus. I didn’t know him at all the first couple of years, but our summer roommate-ship allowed a friendship to develop. He even played one of my harder piano compositions at my senior-year recital for my major!
- I’m also grateful for my sophomore-year roommate who, although we weren’t friends, still put up with me anyway and didn’t give me a hard time about it. I did feel prompted by the Holy Spirit to apologize to him the following summer, realizing more soberly that I was in fact a jerk to him. He received my apology and said that we were good. Naturally, we didn’t really develop a friendship beyond that, but it was a good lesson in treating others well, especially others who I live with. (Also, that following summer I was on the receiving end of a horrible roommate-ship with someone else, and that also played a role in me realizing what my sophomore-year roommate went through with me.)
- I’m grateful for my freshman-year roommate who decided I was cool enough to hang out with. He also introduced me to Ben Folds for the first time!
I’ve covered a few of the other roommates / housemates in
previous Gratitude Series installments, but there are a few that remain that I
will briefly mention:
- I did live with my mom and stepdad for a little over 6 years after I moved back from Minnesota. I’m grateful that they put up with me as long as they did, but I also recognize that it was beyond time for me to move out by the time I finally did, and I know all three of us are better off for it.
- I did have seven different roommates during my years in New York, which yielded a wide variety of experiences. We were kids. Things happened. And I’m grateful that we all got along just well enough to survive middle school and do our jobs well as choristers and as students. The most important thing was – and still is – praising God, and we did that to the best of our abilities according to what He gave each of us.
Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! 1 Chronicles 16:8, NKJV
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