Eight years and thousands of miles in between Mark Selzer and me.
August 2001. Mark came out to visit me while I had been living in New York City. A month before 9/11 we were standing on the Brooklyn boardwalk looking over the East River to lower Manhattan - Wall Street and the World Trade Centers and we reflected on how much economic power and influence that one little area represented. So much has happened since then.
August 2009. I find myself in Japan after having already spent three months traveling in India. Shruthi and I had only decided a week or so earlier that we were going to Japan. I had to get in touch with my friend Mark who has been living in Japan for many years. So being this close I definitely wanted to visit him, introduce him to Shruthi and meet his wife and 2 year old son. Upon contacting Mark of my impending arrival, however, he was not as close as I thought he would be. He was thousands of miles away - back in Palm Springs, California visiting his parents and family! Fortunately we had two weeks in Japan and Mark would be returning to Japan before we left.
Despite him just coming back from the States, dealing with jet lag and taking care of those things one has to do when returning from a long vacation, he still opened his home to us.
He is the friend I remembered from the day I met him back in 1987. We were both pledging a Fraternity house at the University of Southern California. We were both fairly easy going guys who shared a lot of similar interests during our undergraduate days. He is the friend I remembered but really don't know in many ways, I think, because we have not been in each others lives in so many years. Sure we have traded some emails but that is just not the same.
I hope that my friend is well and continues to be well through all the twists and turns life presents us. I am thankful for having had the chance to reconnect.
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