Thank You, Uncle Humanity

My last post was really, really, REALLY dark.  I know that.  But true to my heading, I’m a swinging kind of man (not like that, people, as in mood variation).  Sometimes, it’s interesting to drink a bottle of wine, dunk your hands in paint, and splatter a blank canvas, see what comes out.

Let me set the record straight.  I had a great weekend with a great friend of mine.  We drank excellent scotch, ate some delicious food, saw a jazz band play, and went to Butch McGuires in Chicago and made fascinating conversation.  You know, sometimes, Life can really surprise you, and that, my friends, is what makes it worth living.  The chance, the wager, that today, or tomorrow will provide an opportunity for something magical.  And I met some amazing people last night.  A specific person who touched me in a way that forced me to realize there are some amazingly good and kind and decent people out there.  That humans, for all of our failures and inadequacies, can really be good to one another.  It’s a spirited realization.  And to the woman that brought me to this, thank you.

The connections humans can make through communication and chemicals is really an extraordinary phenomenon.  I’m not a great person.  I strive to be, but I can be just as big an a-hole as any number of people out there.  But I desire to do better.  I want to be good.  I want to work at that.

And for the record, the chance encounter last evening wasn’t physical, there was no exchanging of fluids.  It simply was a riveting conversation with a beautiful person.  And it will not amount to more than that, but the memory of that hour will remain with me.  It will serve as a beacon, as a reminder, when I witness some of the depraved things one human can do to another, that there is good in the world.  That there is a reason to be thankful for life.

Last night, I felt the ghost of my long-deceased Uncle hovering around Butch McGuire’s, (a bar that he managed in the 70’s).  I’m the most grounded, least spirit-believing person I know, but I swear I felt my Uncle Richard watching over me, guiding me toward my enlightenment.  I wish I had the chance to meet you Uncle Richard, but since you passed before I was born, I’ve always felt I missed out on having you in my life.  But last night I felt your spirit, and I witnessed the embodiment of your big heart and your love in someone else.  I want to let you know, Uncle Richard, I felt and heard you.  And I love you.  I want to thank you, both of you, for putting this great big smile on my face.