One of Those People

Sometimes you meet someone.

Someone who is just one of those people.

Someone who has an enormous effect-they might reawaken something in you, they might inspire you. They didn't mean to do it it, they were just being themselves. Many times they don't even realize what they did. They were just the right person at the right time. It could be just in passing like the lady in white Mr Bernstein reminisces fondly about in "Citizen Kane"-he only saw her once but remembered her for the rest of his life-or they could become what Madeleine L'Engle calls 'a friend of the right hand'. Regardless of original duration, the ripples they cause stay with you and you feel an enormous debt, one you might never be able to repay but are better for the trying to do so. Whatever you call them-beacon, lighthouse, lifeline, touchstone-those people are one of the flat out cool perks of being human.

This subject was already on my mind (today is an anniversary of me meeting one of mine) but it was brought home even more strongly on Thursday when one of my employees gave me a gift-she had made me a scarf but the real gift was her telling me that I was one of those people for her.

It was a fabulous, fabulous thing.