Right now we all need a “feel good” story. This one is perfect for “May the 4th”. It involves technology, Yoda and the Force. In 1980 I went to see the “Empire Strikes Back” with my best friend at that time, John. It was Yoda’s first movie appearance. My most vivid last memory of our childhood time together was sitting in the front row and straining our necks when the Imperial probe droid crashed into Hoth. Not much later, John sent my Dad a “get well” note with a hand-drawn picture of Yoda, still treasured by Dad.
After that, we fell out of contact. At the time it was difficult for anybody, much less two soon-to-be teenage boys, to stay in touch. After several family moves, I came to accept that I wouldn’t have any connections with John or other friends from that period.
Years later, my career took me to Cerner where I worked in a software engineering group led by Francois in the late 90s and later reported to one of the founders, Paul Gorup. After leaving Cerner, I joined UMKC where I began to work with the Microsoft Hololens. I continued that work after joining Children’s Mercy Hospital. One day, a member of my team shared that he had just heard a presentation about the Hololens at a local tech conference and thought I would be interested in meeting the speaker. He gave the name and at first it didn’t register. Then I asked him again for the name and on a lark, looked the speaker up in LinkedIn. His age and features matched my hunch, so I sent a message through LinkedIn, “you didn’t happen to grow up in St. Louis (Crestwood and then the city) did you?”. Before long I received a reply that he did! After nearly 40 years I had reconnected with my childhood friend. But the story gets better, with the clear influence of the Force. Prepare for goosebumps….
John and I arranged to meet for lunch a few years ago (pre-pandemic). During our conversation we realized how closely our lives had tracked. We’re both happily married and proud parents. We’re both involved in our churches. But things really got wild when we compared the paths of our careers. As it turned out, John interned at Cerner and reported to Francois in the early 90s. He then worked for a startup run by Paul Gorup between Paul’s two periods at Cerner. So a number of our career milestones were separated by just a few years. To top it off, we realized that we live about 5 miles from one another!
After a number of failed attempts, I finally found a picture from our childhood that included both of us (kindergarten!). The selfie isn’t so great of me, but compare the current John smile with the kid John. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to reconnect with John. The pandemic has made it difficult to get together but we hope to visit soon.
Two takeaways:
1 – George Lucas coined the “The Force” while many of us think of God or “the Universe”. Whatever we call it, there are some things that we can’t explain. In my experience, many of these involve encounters with people at unexpected times, in unexpected ways and often at just the right time. It is a blessing when this happens, for me they are “God moments”.
2 – Childhood friends may not always be lost. Sometimes they aren’t so long ago and not so far away. When you wonder if somebody might be a friend from a long time ago, it is definitely worth asking!
Oh, and that Yoda picture? Before they down-sized, my Dad had what I think must have been the world’s biggest Yoda collection! Started by a hand drawn get well note from a young boy!
