I had a bad day today. I mean one of those days when you leave the office that you don’t really care if you ever go back kind of days. I was angry, frustrated, and generally exhausted from the bureaucratic process that drives the federal machine. Actually, I thought I was having a bad day at that point. I also knew that someone I consider a dear friend and one of my favorite targets of merciless flirting was having surgery today.

It was a common procedure that should have been no fuss, no muss, over and done. At six o’clock I learned that it hadn’t been as simple as that. Somehow things had gotten complicated. All I knew at that point was that someone I care for was in trouble and I realized at that moment that I would have given anything to make things right. There wasn’t anything in the world I wanted more than to simply be there, as though just my presence would make some kind of difference. And in that moment, I would have given everything up just to be there and see for myself that she was alright.

I’m not going to sit here and type out a manifesto promising a life-long reordering of my priorities, but I will say that for the first time in a long, long time, my eyes were opened to the world beyond my own little slice of life and how perilous a blade it balances on. She may not be mine to win or lose, but knowing this chick makes me want to be a better man. I’m not there in body, but you can stand assured that I’m most assuredly there in spirit.