It's not always possible to choose your friends. Sometimes, if you are very lucky or maybe if your karma is very, very good, a friend will find you. However it occurs, it continues to be as amazing to me as finding a mundane object that at closer scrutiny reveals its beautiful soul.

Like this copper wire, life gets twisted. It's convoluted and there are many days that seem to be nothing more than a utilitarian ort grabbed from a discard box and forced into a shape that will serve until a more dedicated article comes along.

But if you look closely, copper wire has a warm shine, a pride it what it does. This one pirouettes around itself and executes a perfect do-si-do into a decorative loop it doesn't really need. Art.

Friendship is like that. Do we need it to survive? Perhaps not. Does it improve life like a coat of Blue Coral over twenty coats of Candy Apple Red? I like to think so.

Today is the birthday of one of the finest people anyone could know. I have never met Rich Banks in person, but over the last couple of years we have compared notes and talked about life. We have shared and compared anecdotes about our involvement in an organized program (it will not be named) for adolescent boys.

I value my friendship with Rich, as rare and wondrous as a glittering treasure you see at the bottom of a clear pool in the middle of a stand of trees. If you're reading this, please take a moment to stop at his page and say hello and happy birthday.

And if he asks, "Who invited you?" tell him Style did.

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