it's all just a big joke

I ran into Mike the other day.  The last we worked together was shortly after 9/11 and over the years we'd run into each other and compare notes.  We talked about three times since then and I'd say the time we spent together in the last ten years must be something like maybe an hour.

We spent just enough time together to remember each other but not enough to see any changes.  Mike sees me as I was ten years ago and I see him much the same way. 

After talking and laughing for about a half hour he said something that made me think.

He said, "I always liked the way you looked at things.  Whether it's politics, or the area, or the news, you think it's all just a big joke.  Because of you, I look at the news at night and read the papers and laugh out loud because it's all just a big joke and it makes the news more like a sit-com."

Yep, that was pretty much my attitude back in the pre-9/11 days before everyone got serious about everything.  I was carefree, selling phone cards and poison ivy treatments, searching for the meaning of life, and life was good.  Mike still knows the me of ten years ago and talking with him was like looking through an old photo album of the way my mind worked before we became a police state.

The best part is Mike still thinks it's all a big joke and he credits me for giving him that attitude, and he gave it right back to me ten years later.

What a wonderful gift.

Thank you, Universe.