I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

For those of you who are unfamiliar with a blog (short for a Web Log), it is much like a room full of your friends that have come together for your birthday party. Everyone is equal, but it's my blog. Of course, you still try not to say stuff that is stupid or boring, yet you are more relaxed and open than you would be at a "company meeting."
Until word gets around that this is a blog worth visiting, many of the people who will be logging on to this page will be people who I know and who know me personally. However, in the future, new people who begin to log in will want to know who WE are, not just me. They will read what I say and then click on to your comments to see who else is reading what I have written and what they thought about it.
Right away, I am going to write about my friends and family. I want to tell our story, and just like you would if we were in a room together, instead of a virtual room, I want you to let me know if you remember a story differently than I do. In the same way, I may stick with my story and argue the point, but you are welcome to defend yourself and your view/memory.
I love my family and my friends. I won't write about people I don't love and respect. I won't try to embarrass anyone... ever.
Actually, what I want to do is to say thank you to everyone whose life has affected mine in so many positive ways. It would be a shame to live and die, and have never said thank you to those of you to whom I owe so much.
Apart from the Lord himself, my greatest debt is to my parents. Anything I say will understate my debt to them. I don't know how to thank them adequately for their love, their unwavering support, their giving and sacrifices, their example of love, commitment, maturity, and hard work. Their words, and their attitudes are interwoven into my letters, my daily life and conversations, my poetry and now, these musings with you.
Right there with them would be the influence and impact on my life of my wife, Beth. For this cause a man leaves... and cleaves! She is the one greatest gift and compliment that God has ever given me. She is beautiful. She is quiet. She doesn't like the spotlight. She can be as tough as she needs to be... with me and with salesmen. And still today, in our 29Th year together, she is still my best friend. She's Trevithick!
Her parents and brothers have been the best in laws a man could ever have. I love them all and appreciate their friendship and support.
Lastly, I want to tell you about my friends. To do that, I am going to write about them and what they have brought to my life. Just as with my family, there is no way for me to write about everything that my friends have done for me and all the ways they have influenced me. So, if I miss something important to you, PLEASE share it in the comments.
I will write about my friends in no particular order and especially since I have never rated my friends in terms of importance, neither the length of the article, nor the order of their reference has any bearing on the value I place on each one.
This is the one area of my life, that of my family, my mentors, and friends, that I am stinking, filthy, RICH. more later!