Michael Idlis — you rock the casbah of the cosmic rodeo

You know how young children will grab hands and prance around in a circle? They twirl around in some kind of playful whirl till they almost fall down — or do fall down — or spin off from each other in dizzyness.

Keep that picture in your mind; we’ll retrieve it in just a bit.

A few days earlier I had posted a piece that included this line:

Now we are experiencing what can only be described as a surging comeback.

On Sunday I arrived late to my own son’s birthday party. (Explanation will not follow; it would be complex but dull.) There I was coming in, hugging hellos at everyone, looking for Ann to see how I could help.

Michael Idlis, whom I hadn’t seen since the summer before — nearly three-quarters of a year — grabbed me and said he had something urgent he needed to talk to me about outside. I tried to put him off till later so I could jump in and assist my wife . . . but he was insistent.

With other people still pulling at me — to welcome me in essence to my own home — I followed Michael outside.

Now . . . retrieve that image of the kids twirling in a circle that you’ve been holding so dutifully in your mind.

Michael grabbed my hands and spun me around in the grass out front — just like that! We were the kids going faster and faster.

Not only was Michael pulling me around and around, he was a-jumping and a-hopping while doing so. Me too, though because of an injury to my leg a week earlier  I looked like a one-legged bullfrog.

Through all this he was yelling:

Dude! Congratulations! I’m so happy for you! A surging comeback! Dude! You rock! You deserve it! Dude! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

What can I say? We didn’t quite fall down though I needed to.

I write this as the supreme example of how to celebrate a good development in someone’s life. Michael has given you the blueprint.

The dude knows how to celebrate a success.