"My Friend Mike"

I want to tell you about my friend Mike. I met Mike about 1 1/2 years ago at a dinner party. When I talked with Mike, that night, I noticed a New York accent, just a litle bit of one but I notice voices; I pay attention to voices and so I asked him if he was from New York and he said he grew up in Brooklyn. (83 years ago) Then he leaned in a bit and with his fun smile he said, "I miss the action". It cracked me up so much. At age 93 he misses the "action". I knew right away that I liked Mike.

Mike and I get together every couple of weeks and have right from the beginning. We are good friends. Mike was at Pearl Harbor about 2 weeks after Dec. 7th. He's told me a lot about his life then. He was a parachute rigger for a long time in the Air Force. Then he got involved in suicide prevention for the military and finally worked for the Government as a trouble shooter on a variety of projects. He also was involved in some highly secret cold war project in North Africa that involved him reporting to the Joint Chiefs. He still isn't at liberty to say what was going on. I personally saw photos of him getting one commendation after another so I know he was really good at his job. Mike also was actively a counselor on a suicide prevention hot line.

Mike continued to write and speak about suicide prevention long after his official retirement. He still writes today on his own blog site and he monitors other information and stays up to date on efforts to get people to stop killing themselves. In addition, along the way Mike published a novel that could be described as science fiction, it is still listed with Amazon.com. Mike wrote a group of stories called "Grandpa Stories" about the kind of stories one would tell to their grandkids. He still writes everyday, reads from his kindle and shows me how to work the computer.

Mike and I discuss the universe, philosophy, religion, and so much more. He has such wonderful insights and he is amazingly modern in many of his views. He is a good friend, always asking about me and my son. We go to the Beach Grass Cafe or IHOP or sometimes we sit around his computer at his house. I love my friend Mike and I respect him highly.

Alot of older folks (Mike is not old) have so much to offer, but our society dismisses older folks and prefers they go off to some retirement community. That is wrong, because friends like Mike should be listened to and cherished. I hope I make it to 93 and I can say, "I miss the action".