{"id":111038,"date":"2025-07-08T23:40:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T05:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=111038"},"modified":"2025-07-10T21:25:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T03:25:38","slug":"saying-farewell-to-a-longtime-friend-i-hope-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/07\/saying-farewell-to-a-longtime-friend-i-hope-not.html","title":{"rendered":"Saying Farewell to a Longtime Friend? (I Hope Not)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Lake<\/a>
Lake Louise<\/a>, in Banff National Park (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had a lengthy telephone conversation today with a long-time friend. \u00a0I learned not very long ago that he\u2019s on hospice care, and I had hoped to visit him before we left for Canada. \u00a0But I was back in Missouri, where I developed a remarkably persistent and irritating cold, which I didn\u2019t want to pass on to him. \u00a0I\u2019m still dealing with it, and now I\u2019m up here in Alberta.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how long he has. \u00a0He actually sounded stronger to me than he has recently sounded, but he says that the indicators are definitely headed downward. \u00a0I hope that he\u2019ll be around when I get back. \u00a0I would like to visit with him at least one more time \u2014 I hope many<\/em> more times \u2014 and it\u2019s conceivable that, by the end of July, I\u2019ll have actually shed this wretched cold.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s surprisingly upbeat. \u00a0He feels that he\u2019s done, in his life, what he was supposed to do. \u00a0He\u2019s finished his mission, and he fervently looks forward to seeing his wife again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
I\u2019m not satisfied with the images that I\u2019ve found for Lake Louise thus far. None of them does the landscape justice. This painting, by Harold Broadfield Warren, is titled \u201cDistant View of Lake Louise\u201d and dates to somewhere between 1904 and 1914. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I could not possibly imagine a more striking place to have had such a conversation. \u00a0While two generations of the clan were paddling a canoe around Lake Louise, one of the most beautiful places on the planet \u2014 amidst the kind of alpine scenery that most powerfully inspires me with transcendent thoughts of heaven \u2014 I was sitting at the end of the lake, speaking on the phone with someone who is, with complete serenity and confidence, about to pass into the eternal worlds. \u00a0He will very definitely be in my prayers tonight.<\/p>\n

\"Banff's<\/a>
Lake Louise, in Banff National Park \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph). \u00a0I selected this photograph because it gives at least some slight idea of the peculiar (and peculiarly beautiful) color of the glacial water of the lake,<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The talented Jasmin Rappleye has posted a not-quite half-hour-long podcast addressing the question of \u201cWho\u2019s Getting Paid?\u00a0The Secret Economy Behind Latter-day Saint Influencers,\u201d<\/a> in which she addresses the question of whether the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is covertly subsidizing podcasts, paying for online testimonies, and the like. \u00a0She knows far more about such matters than I do, so I learned quite a bit from listening to her. \u00a0What I do know, however, is consistent with her views on the subject.<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/a>
The famous Chateau Lake Louise sits at the end of the lake. \u00a0I sat for my telephone call some distance to the right, across the outlet of the Bow River from the Chateau. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Newly posted on the unchanging and essentially comatose website of the Interpreter Foundation:<\/p>\n