Today's fortune: You will have many friends when you need them.
Friendship has been a running theme on this blog since Day 1. But I think this fortune strikes at the very heart of friendship itself. "Friends" are a dime a dozen - and even cheaper, in the Facebook sense of the word. Friends who will actually be there when you need them - why, that's a rare and special thing indeed.
Of course, my very best friend in the whole world is my wife, Jamie. I have known her for nearly 10 years now (and we've been married for more than seven), and nobody has ever known me better. I have no doubt she will be there for me whenever I need her.
Besides Jamie, the most reliable people in my life are my parents and my brother Marty. After I wrote the other day about Jamie and I moving several times in the early years of our marriage, the next time I spoke to Marty he asked, "Why didn't you mention who helped you move each of those times?"
You did, Marty. We leaned on Marty pretty heavily during those moves. And his wife Sarah was just as helpful. During one of those moves, we used a big truck with a sliding door on the back. As we drove the truck from Maryville, Mo., to Kansas City, Kan., a floor lamp dislodged itself from atop the pile and fell onto the inside of the sliding door, blocking the door from opening more than a foot. As Marty and I debated whether to use a hatchet or a sledgehammer to tear open the door, Sarah shimmied into the truck through that one-foot opening and removed the lamp.
Marty has lived in the same house for over a decade now. But if he and Sarah ever decide to move, I'll be the first one there to help. Ah, hell, I'll probably be busy that day.
Here's the thing. Outside of my wife and my immediate family, I could count on one hand the number of friends I have who I could absolutely count on when I truly need them.
That sounds sad, but I'm betting it's the truth for most people.
What I've learned from this fortune is those are the people in the world I need to cherish the most. And I need to be there for them, too, when the going gets tough.
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