sex, drugs, and rock and roll

Okay, I admit, it's a tease.  As we were sitting in the hot tub last night discussing blogging, my good friend, an exceptional blogger, mentioned that titles draw people to your blog.  Unabashedly, I listened and decided to see if he were right.  This has nothing to do with sex, drugs, or rock and roll.  It has to do with the aforementioned blogger.  I've said before that traveling through life is not about the destination, nor for that matter, the journey.  It's all about with whom you choose to travel.  And I have been amazingly lucky (or exceptionally gifted at choosing people, if you want the truth) in my choices.  Today's topic of conversation is that youngish (today, no longer in his fifties) gentleman with whom we have traveled for more years than I care to mention.  Over the course of the last few years, he and I have solved most of the world's problems sitting in the hot tub with an adult libation.  (Perhaps, we have caused a few as well, but that number would be insignificant!)  To me he is truly a renaissance man.  He has reinvented the phrase multi-talented, as well as incarnated himself several times in terms of his interests.  He is an amazing carpenter.  He has dabbled (with great success) in tailoring.  He is an exceptional photographer.  He is a caring and dedicated teacher.  He is a supportive and loving family man.  He is a gifted presenter.  He is amazingly humorous.  And if you look very carefully, you will see that gleam--that spark of who he really is--in his eyes!  And here's the thing.  His espoused is a wonderful, gifted leader.  His children are former students and thank god, friends.  To know them is to understand effective parenting.  They have blended characteristics of their parents and yet are unique and amazing individuals.  Individually, they are friends.  As a family, they beat the heck out of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.  Okay, drugs and rock and roll!  Happy birthday OLD friend.  Know that you, like all my "many" readers, are loved!