Over forty years ago, I came across a saying that I found on a greeting card that a student had thrown out of their locker, lying on the floor at Buffalo Grove High School. I never realized at that time how significant that greeting card would become in my life. The saying is titled “Bits and Pieces,” and it addresses how people enter our lives, some in a positive, others in a negative way, and as the saying goes, “He (God), moves people in and out of each other’s lives, and each leaves a mark on the other.” Last week, reflecting on “Bits and Pieces,” I wrote about how we are all a composite of all of our life experiences, including those by individuals who touch our lives, no matter how brief a time they spent with us. Some of these experiences are so brief that we don’t realize how these momentary meetings have left a deep and lasting mark on our hearts.
Last Thursday evening, I attended our second “Darien Rocks the Green” concert, and as always, I spend time walking through the crowd greeting concertgoers and asking them their impressions of our city. Early in the evening, I came across two couples, Jim and Janet Yule, and John and Dee Dee Rudisel, who were enjoying the music as well as the opportunity to spend their evening with lifelong friends. I found them to be very open and willing to share a bit of their history with me. From what I learned, Dee Dee and Janet were childhood friends, growing up in the same neighborhood, and attending the same elementary school with one another. Their friendship never lapsed, and when John and Dee Dee found out that Jim and Janet had sold their home in Berwyn and moved to Darien, they sold their home in Bolingbrook several years later and moved to Darien and now live in the same condo complex as Jim and Janet. Now, these two couples, each married for over forty years, are enjoying their lives and friendship living here in Darien, a city that they both agree is a nice place to live.
Meeting Jim and Janet and John and Dee Dee was a brief and momentary experience for me, but it will be one that I will remember for a long time. It reminded me of that line from “Bits and Pieces,” and how people leave a mark on one another’s lives. I was touched by the fact that these two couples, everyday people, had found a way to enjoy their lives through the continuation of a lifelong friendship. To them, life’s achievements are not measured by monetary gains, rather it is in the quality of their relationships, and the individuals they call friends.
As Stuart Scott so aptly states, “Every day I am reminded that our life’s journey is really about the people that touch us.” What he says has great significance for me as it does for Jim and Janet and John and Dee Dee, and I know that I will never forget the “Bits and Pieces,” that have entered my life, knowing that I am more because of them, and how I would be less had they not come into my life.