You've Got a Friend

I've got to start out by lauding the virtues of Google Image. Where else could I have found this picture of Kirk hugging Spock? Priceless.

This past Thursday, one of the kids that I tutor gave me a hug. I had just finished my four hour shift and was thinking about what I was going to do that night, how things had gone that evening at work, and a million other trivial things that would and should quickly evaporate as quickly as the vapor in my car's exhaust. And then, there was a Jordan hugging my leg and saying 'Thanks, Micah. Have a good night.' This event would not leave me quite so quickly. It was an unexpected and uninhibited expression of spontaneous emotion that so many of us never experience in the giving or receiving, and it has stuck with me over the weekend.

This event was brought into even more relief Friday morning. I run my dog every M/W/F morning and every morning I see two men in their mid 60's walking and talking together. I often wondered how long they have known each other, what their lives are like, and who I'll walk with every morning when I am 64. This Friday I saw them meet on the street to begin their walk for the first time, and as one approached the other they both smiled, shook hands and warmly embraced. Thier expression of affection, while much less unexpected, was no less uninhibited thank Jordan's impromptu embrace the prior evening. Suffer the little children in all of us to embrace each other.

So get out there, people, and give some love. Expected or unexpected. Just don't call me to post bail if you get carried away.