I first met Mike back in sixth grade while playing on a basketball team that my brother Steve and a friend of his coached. As I remember it, we had a great time playing that year and began a friendship that has lasted now for nearly 38 years.

Since then, we have worked together, gone through high school together and even shared an apartment for awhile. On top of that, we have gone on a couple of great trips-to San Francisco and Ireland, all while laughing an awful, awful lot. When we met up for breakfast a few days back, we caught up on each others’ lives and, of course, laughed. Mike and I have always been able to laugh at the silliest, most ridiculous stuff, things that most other people have either cringe their faces at, told us to act our ages or ignore what we said all together.

These are just some of the reasons that we have never had any real disagreements or drawn out fights about anything at all. I guess we both figured that life is too short to spend bitching too often so, instead, we have always tried to make the best of things.

Even though Mike and I didn’t spend a ton of time together when went out to grab a bite recently, it was enough time for us to honestly enjoy each others company and revive what was once a seemingly non-stop slew of jokes, observations and almost any other things that would be worth laughing about…or at.

Though there is one other guy that I also consider a dear friend and to whom I’ll be forever grateful for changing and bettering my life years ago out in Arizona, the time seemed right to talk a little about Mike right after I had seen him.

I don’t believe that anyone should go their entire lives without making a couple of dear friends but, sadly, I’m pretty sure that there are people that do. Friendship, I believe, is one of the most powerful things for people to experience.  Fortunately, I’ve been lucky.