Dear Readers 1 and 2

I’m writing this blog because Toni told me to write this blog.

Okay, it’s a little more complex than that.

I’m writing this blog because Toni and Dave told me to write this blog.

I’ve known Toni since high school. She was the first person I can ever remember telling me that she was there to listen if I ever needed to talk to anyone. I have adored her ever since.

Of course, I later learned that I was just one sheep in a rather large flock. At Toni and Dave’s wedding reception a few months ago, a childhood friend toasted her long relationship with Toni. In the course of her speech, she described a conversation where Toni lamented the series of pursuers that she had to gently deflect time and time again. The friend responded with astonishment that someone so smart could be so oblivious to something so obvious, “Toni, you’re hot. You keep telling these boys you’ll listen to them. What do you expect them to do?”

That blindness aside – or maybe, in part, because of it – she was and is a remarkable girl. As often as I am frustrated by people being less than what they could be, she is a reminder that what I believe is within us all actually does exist. Her encouragement to write this blog is only her latest act of gently and generously pushing me towards my own potential. The short version is this: she restores my faith in humanity and she renews my faith in me. I don’t know of a better definition of a friend.

There is something reassuring in seeing someone who deserves so much actually get it. In Dave, Toni found her equal in intelligence, curiosity, and kindness. I was fortunate enough to get to spend a weekend with them on a recent visit to New York City. As the three of us rode the subway out to Coney Island over a multitude of Brooklyn neighborhoods, I mentioned that I was wondering if I could be a writer. Echoing that teenage promise offered half of my life ago, Toni told me that if I ever needed to write something, she would read it. Dave proved her equal again, this time in supporting someone he barely knew, urging me to author a blog and offering to help get me started.

So I’ve got a blog and at least two readers. They have my gratitude. It is my ambition and my hope that I can also give them a good story.