"Let My Best Be for My Friend"

During the years I worked with this man, I took our relationship pretty much for granted. He was my boss and mentor, my advisor, confessor, and benefactor. I admired and respected him (still do) in so many ways and situations. He modeled the Golden Rule better than anyone I know. He exhibited character traits I sought to acquire. He carried power and wisdom with dignity and restraint. Best of all, he trusted that I would do my best and he gave me room and support to make things happen.

If he has a failing, it may rest in a somewhat naive expectation that a higher order will intervene to correct injustices. After all, as a leader he scrupulously sought to avoid or correct imbalances wherever he perceived them. In doing so, he touched the lives of people in ways that he will never know.

His life filled with constant learning and self-improvement, he might be inclined to discount my words. But perception is reality to the perceiver. And surely I am beyond the age of dissembling. We no longer see each other often, and it seems a stretch to say we are "friends" in the social sense, but a bond exists that wants not to be broken. He is one of the finest men I know, my friend Adolfo, forever El Jefe.