don't make me cry on this plane

(a text from my friend Trey)

don’t make me cry on this plane

“I love this for you,” 
my friend texts
as I prepare for take-off

“you’re in a dope season,” 
he says 

“you’ve spent the entirety 
of your adult life taking 
care of other people

you’re entering a space 
where they don’t need 

you to take care of them 
in the same ways, 

which is allowing you to 
pay new attention to the 

person you’re becoming

it’s amazing and 
inspiring to witness” 

*

My friend

Trey Ferguson

wrote a book called Theologizin’ Bigger that launched into the world yesterday. It’s a beautiful, brilliant, funny book—and a really important one for this time we live in. I wanted to write a poem about it to convince y’all to buy it, but then I decided on a poem about Trey himself instead (in his own words).

Trey and I connected online a little over a year ago because he had a book inside of him, and I know a couple things about books. Our ensuing friendship was a delightful surprise and one of my favorite things about 2023. (We might continue our friendship into 2024. We’ll see.)

Trey inspires me. He makes me think. He makes me laugh. He has occasionally made me cry (see poem above). He is kind, he is generous, and he really sees people and lets them know it (see poem again). He also gives me a hard time for being old (I was in high school when he was born), and I tell him to go to hell. (I don’t believe in hell anymore, so it’s fine.)

Theologizin’ Bigger is about love as the commitment to wholeness, and I've watched this author live that out in real life. My life is better because Trey is in it, and your life will be better if his book is in yours. You’re a good one, Pastor Trey. I’m really glad we’re friends.