I met a amazing man some time ago.
He has neither a negative cell in his body, nor a negative thought in his mind.

When you ask, "How are you today?" his reply is always .....

fine as usual

You have lived a life others where I come from cannot imagine.
To us, your life lacked what we seemed to require and relish.
To us you had every hardship and every chance to fail, yet you remain strong and steadfast.
You see hope, and good, and praise, and grace where others of your ilk,
and we as well, see despair, and doom, and failure.
You are ebullient, and enlivening, and exhilaratory; you are my hero.

For most of us life is the constant battle and balance of positive with negative,
right with wrong, good with bad, winning with losing, twisted and aligned.
With you, my friend, there is only the positive; you cannot see the negative in this world.

Although I fail to touch and see and understand the world in which you live,
I admire, perhaps more than you will ever know, your ability to sail and steer clearly in that world.
Yours is a world without regret, and without gloom, and without predigest, and without guile.

You see the world today as most only hope to see it in eternity.
While here, you inspire us all so we can arrive there a bit prepared.


19 May 2003
Dubai