In the words of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, “The hope still lives and the dream shall never die.”

Bryn, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your giving me permission to tell that story.  Indeed, you may have contributed the primary theme to the book by your courageous openness.  I can’t thank you enough for giving me the kick that got me off that stuck place that we writers sometimes get into.  In other words, your message, in a muse-like kind of way, inspired me.

Let me tell you how by relating the incident you gave me permission to tell to those one or two others who might come across this page.

I don’t remember the exact date, and the date doesn’t matter, but early one morning last year, while she was trying to hoist a new water bottle atop the water cooler at the office, my friend Bryn did a magnificent job of giving me the perfect opportunity to test the merits of the ShamWOW(TM) (whose advertisements and extravagant claims I’d seen on television and to which I’d basically said, yeah, right!)  and, as a result, to come to appreciate what a really useful product it can be, particularly under some rather unique circumstances, and I’ve been a fan ever since, both of the ShamWOW and of Bryn’s creativity teaching me about it.  Again, Bryn, thank you for being so clever.

Now back to what else you’ve given me by allowing me to tell that story.  I realize, in part because of your message, and to a degree because of having read a book called “Learning to Dance in the Rain” that the folks at Duke gave me when the call center closed, anyway I realize that the primary lesson I learned during my year in Las Vegas was to be thankful for what I was given.

Just like the water cooler story, I am grateful for every experience that came my way last year, even though I cursed some of them under my breath, and at times out loud, as I was going through them, I will admit.  But I know that there is always more than one way to tell a story.  And if you choose to look at them through the eyes of gratitude, the story becomes one of triumph and achievement.  I’ve been looking for a way to make clear that the experience there in Las Vegas last year was the success I felt, and continue to feel, it was, and this, it seems to me, is one way to do that.  To see the experience through the eyes of gratitude …

Am I crazy or does that make a crazy kind of sense to you too?

I enjoyed receiving your message today Bryn and I’m grateful that last year gave us the chance to begin our friendship.

Update the countdown.