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Having your birthday in the era of COVID is different. Dinner at a nice restaurant comes to you in a large box. Your friends & colleagues show up, but you all gather on Zoom. Socially distanced cake happens w/ face shields on.
But you know what doesn’t change? The love. I’m so grateful to everyone for taking a few minutes out of their day to stop by and wish me happy birthday via Zoom yesterday, and for my lovely wife for arranging the whole event.
Among a parade of folks from all different parts of my life, my dear friend Matthew Weber showed up in the Zoom chat and was his characteristically amazing self. He wrote three Haikus to celebrate the occasion of my birth, which I shall now reproduce for you in full:
“Renaissance hombre
With a depth of excellence
Parallel to none
A voice and a heart
That is smooth and savory
Foie Gras kind of friend
Mysterious? Yes!
But crack that sweet hardened nut
And your reward? Joy.”
This inspired me to ask us the whole crew to get into a haiku-writing session, and in fact, many great haikus were written impromptu and shared. Here is mine:
“Zoom with all my peeps
Even in mid-pandemic
I’m very lucky”
Even in the middle of everything, there can still be love and kindness. My friends and colleagues are a frequent reminder of this.