It has been said that some things go better together. I think Jack Johnson made the phrase popular when he put together the soundtrack for the curious monkey movie. Indeed, it would be hard to pull apart these timeless combinations:

• Peanut Butter & Jelly
• Mickey & Minnie
• Hall & Oates
• Pitchers and Catchers
• Lemonade Stands and Summer
• Newark and Depression
• Socks and Birkenstocks
• Milk and Fruity Pebbles

Well, okay, the last two may be a stretch, but I think you get my point. Right? That very few things can be accomplished, employed or performed in perfection without the assistance from someone or something else.

My daughters were recently performing at a musical recital and one of the performers’ siblings joined her on the stage for a piano duet. The music was wonderful and the two pianist used the tones to compliment one another in telling a musical story. As they played, I found myself watching them very closely. The pianos were arranged next to each other but facing opposite ends so that each performer could peek through the lifted top of the piano and read the face of their counterpart. On a couple of occasions, the piece would violently change and speed up or come crashing down to a much softer sound. While I am sure that professional pianists can transition musical changes without looking up, it occurred to me that these two superb young pianist needed to look at each other to get it just right.

It wasn’t the needing to look at each other that got me to thinking. It was the fact that they needed to work together to create pitch perfect harmonies at just the right time.

So I thought about that for a while. Then I had some fruit punch and a cookie and drove home.

A couple of days later I was telling my wife how the sight of those two peeking through the pianos at each other was a mirror image of our lives lived in relationship, in community. I wondered how badly things would have gone if one of the lids had dropped a bit and blocked their view.

I think at some point in all of our lives we think it will be okay to crawl into a hole. Seek a little alone time. Maybe just take our antenna down and hope to disappear from everyone’s radar. And who knows, maybe sometimes it is good for us to step back and take some time to reflect and recalibrate our existence and purpose.

But, just like those pianists couldn’t work in tandem without a view of each other, I don’t think we can reach our maximum potential without peeking through our own metaphorical piano lids and making contact with the people around us. People challenge us and bring out parts of us that we probably couldn’t find without a little help. Many times we think we can go it alone. But when we march down that road, we alienate ourselves, we gather feedback from no one and we undoubtedly miss the opportunity to achieve more.

I truly believe that some people are placed in our lives by God on purpose – to challenge our beliefs, lifestyles, decisions and opinions. But we’ve got to put ourselves out there first. What do you think?

Well, I’ve got to run, a single seat where I can sit alone and uninterrupted just opened up at the coffee shop.