That Man

Today I was feeling really grateful for Devin.  As I went about doing the things you do in a day, this is what I thought about him... because sometimes when I think about people I think about them as if they were a character in a book, and the way they would be described.  Because I'm always writing a book in my head, just like normal people do.


"There was an air about him that made a person want to sit up just a little straighter, and check their hair to make sure it was all in place.  Not out of a feeling of inferiority because of some supreme beauty on his part, for although his wife found him extremely handsome that was probably due mainly to some bias on her part.  No, it was not his own perfect features that made people want to appear their best.  Rather it was a sense they felt of his always having everything in place, of always being in control of his person that made other people want the same for themselves, and feeling that perhaps they, too, could be so orderly if they only brushed their own teeth more routinely, or ironed their shirts more carefully.

It felt at times as though he lived on a wavelength that moved just a fraction of a moment faster than that of anyone else.  While most people would still be standing and contemplating all the steps required to complete a task, he would be approaching, said task quite finished, and begin discussion for what was to be done next.  And exactly one moment before you thought the conversation was over, he would already have that next task accomplished as well.

He was rarely the center of attention, but merely having him in the same space did something quite inexplicable to the other occupants of the room.  Those who had been feeling nearly insane, suddenly found that they were feeling a little more sane.  Those unhappy found themselves a little more happy.  Ungrateful persons found reasons to be grateful.  All the un-s and in-s of the world fell away for a time while he was with them, and people began to change their thinking from impossibilities to possibilities.

Let us not get carried away and say that he had power over the heavens, and that the very clouds moved out from blocking the sun at his arrival, because that would be nonsense.  What is true is that even on the cloudiest of days, his presence made the people near him to feel more the sunshine in their own souls."