Every now and then you'll read something that makes you literally stop in your tracks. It won't quite take your breath away, like the view from a mountaintop bar or this one particular boy I know with beautiful eyes. But it will make you say, "Wow, how profound."

This happened to me this morning while reading this 1,000-page tome on Winston Churchill (see the recommended reading link to the left -- and I can hear my friend Friday groan upon reading the words "1000-page" anything). Churchill's lifelong friend Pamela Plowden writes a letter to Churchill's new private secretary, Edward Marsh, explaining the complicated Churchill in one sentence. (Marsh would go on to serve Churchill for 25 years.)

Perhaps I am introspective as of late, considering everything happening in New Orleans and all along the Gulf Coast, but does that quote not strike a chord with you? I rarely write about my personal life here, and that's because I don't believe people would be interested. But in this case, it seems to fit because it illustrates a life lesson.

You know the saying about the importance of first impressions. I've always been a big believer in it. I have this unexplainable gift -- or burden -- of meeting someone and within 15 minutes, sizing them up and draw a far-more-accurate-than-not conclusion about him or her. This has been a great help to me professionally and a great harm to me personally. I simply CANNOT get over a bad first impression.

But over the last couple of weeks, I've re-evaluated this. It's the case of the above-mentioned boy (I say "boy" but you all know I mean over-21, legal, etc.). I first met him maybe two years ago, through a mutual friend. I have to say, the first meeting was not spectacular. There were the meetings to follow where we would say polite hellos, but there was never any real connection. As the months moved on, I dismissed him for the most part, and I'm certain he never knew the difference. In fact, I hardly saw him.

Until about a month ago when we encountered each other in a bar. He looked like he wasn't with anyone, so I invited him over to sit with us. He accepted. And the week after that. And the week after that. And the week after that.

My opinion of him now is completely different, simply because I took time I thought I didn't have to know someone better.

Understand now?