Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who turns our daily lives into a calling.

“I liked your song.”

That’s all that came out.  I wanted to say how Groundhog Day has been such an important movie in my life, how my wife Jenny and I started dating on Groundhog Day in 1981 and we have made watching it a tradition, and how brilliant and funny your story is, so thank you for all of that, and how do you know our neighbors and do you live here in Santa Fe and . . . ?

But all I could say to Danny Rubin, who wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay, was how I liked his song which he sang at our neighbor’s outdoor wedding a few years back.  I’m not sure how my neighbors knew him but there he was and there I was, our paths literally crossing by chance as he walked one way with his guitar and I another the few yards back to my house.

Groundhog Day.  It is part of our national folklore, but the movie is as well, considered one of the greatest comedy movies ever, and one that has had a significant impact on popular culture.  How many movies can say that?  Mention the title and it conjures up Phil, aka Bill Murray, living the same day over and over, and how hard and depressing this becomes to the point of his taking his own life, multiple times, only to wake up at 6 am the next morning with the radio blaring the news that it’s Groundhog Day, again.  His salvation eventually comes from acquiring new skills, showing compassion and appreciation for others, day after day, that saved and enriched many lives, most notably his own.

Would you like to live the same day over again?  And again, and again?  I didn’t think you would, yet aren’t most of our days the same?  Don’t we too often get caught in the routine of waking up, crossing off our to-do lists of errands and emails and meetings, then having dinner, watch some series on Netflix perhaps, and go to bed only to wake up the next day and do it all over again?

We might, then, consider putting a little Phil into our day.  A pastor/therapist friend recently shared with me research on the three ways that always help relationships, which surprisingly mirror what Phil came to learn:  Listen to understand, making sure you really hear the other person.  Express appreciation.  Do acts of kindness and compassion.

There it is:  Secrets to wholeness and healthy living in a fractured and tumultuous world.

To be honest, I don’t remember any of the words to that wedding song.  I did express appreciation with my feeble “I liked your song” but it was jitters speaking more than sincerity.  And have I really done all those acts of kindness and compassion?

I could do better, to be sure, we all can I imagine, and certainly the church could cling more closely to the compassion Jesus showed every day.  But it’s a start, and I am heartened to know we can all start fresh each morning, and day by day get better and better at the art of being human.

Grace and peace,

Harry