NWHDS Spring Festival

To Pete:
I did not keep my vow regarding “don’t THINK and drive.”
After such a weekend, and with such a long drive, it's inevitable.
;o)

In everyday life,
The people around me act as though they expect me to be tuff and hard and efficient,
like a sledge hammer or a drill.

But I am only a banana.

People treat bananas differently than they do a sledge hammer.
They take care not to slam the bananas around carelessly.
If you set it on the counter wrong or too roughly, the banana gets a bruise.
Sometimes you don’t even know it’s bruised until the peel starts to come away.
Then you get a good look and go, “eeew, that yucky part needs to be cut out.”
A banana is not very strong.
And it’s fairly small.
It fares a whole lot better when it is attached to the “bunch.”

I am profoundly grateful for the friends I have found in the NWHDS over the past several years.
You guys feed me, spiritually and intellectually.
You don’t treat a banana as though it were a sledge hammer.
You just let it be what it is: a banana.

You guys build me up, while still permitting me to be small.
That is the best thing of all.