mike is amazing

Guys...guys!  Faithful readers, set yourselves down and here a story of a man so incredible, he absolutely overrules my better judgment for what to write in my blog post today.  This is the tale of my friend Mike D, the greatest inspiration in our lives.  (This is the same Mike who introduced me to Adventure Time).

I wish I could remember when I first met Mike.  Intellectually, I realize that it must have been some time in law school, because I don't have any real concrete memories of interacting with him before that.  Still, I can't quite remember the exact moment of our meeting; I only recall that it was as if the sky suddenly opened, a heavenly fanfare played, a single white dove flew overhead, and all suffering and conflict over the earth was momentarily halted by the immensity and majesty of his presence.  An experience like that, well, it reverberates through your history, influencing all memories of what had happened before (and coloring the future forever with its gravitas).  What this boils down to is that, whenever I try to think of a time in my life before I know we must have met, somehow Mike makes himself an important figure in those earlier memories, too.  That's simply how amazing he is.

But it's not just the aura of a demigod, the winsome good looks, the hilarious repartee, or his keen insight into the struggles of the human condition that draw people to him.  It's also his infinite well of wisdom and basic human kindness.  Even if I didn't hang with rapt attention on every word he spoke simply because of his raw, irrepressible charisma, I'd still have no choice but to hear him hold forth on the important topics of the day.  Never was there a more ardent defender of the rights of the common man.  Never was there so zealous an advocate of the principles of social justice.  Never was there a man more dedicated to the pursuit of intellectual, emotional, and social excellence.

I am ashamed to say that I don't live in the same state as Mike anymore; the pull of destiny drew him to the center of the world, Washington, D.C., where his keen guidance could me more easily delivered to those who need it most.  As for me, I was left behind in the verdant woodlands of Pennsylvania; it is my home and I adore it, but without Mike nearby it feels like a deserted grassland, a place that time and hope have forgotten.

Is there a Mike in your life -- is there someone who you hold in such high regard that, even though thinking of him fills you to the brim with a burning, impassioned envy, you can't help but love and respect him?  Someone so wonderful, so perfect, that you feel embarrassed even to talk to him, because you know you'll never achieve that level of excellence?  With every word he graces you, your secret heart whispers:  how painful it must be for him, to speak to someone so lowly.  How good he is, to talk to me despite my faults.  And that just makes it all the worse.

Look, I'm not one given to hyperbole.  Mike is the real deal.  His excellence casts the flame of mankind in pathetic relief, but instead of lording it over us like a lesser man would, he steps aside and allows us a free reign.  He recognizes that, holding the light of destiny in his fingertips, he has no need to control we individual atoms who make up its fuel.  When I was younger, I imagined that the worst possible master would be an indifferent one.  Now that I understand how truly insignificant we are compared to Mike, I find that I was wrong -- the worst possible master would be any one but Mike, and we are so very, very blessed to be permitted to stand in his shadow.