August 2, 2008 is Friendship day this year. I’m wondering, why does it need its own day. Why aren’t we celebrating our friends everyday?
The biggest lesson I had to learn about friends is this: “Just because they don’t like what you like, or want to do what you want them to do, at the time they want you to do it, doesn’t mean they’re not your friend.” Whew. A bit run-on to be sure. The point remains. They don’t have to be you to be a friend.
Over the years I’ve fallen in and out of friendship with others. It’s O.K. There have been a couple of friends that I’ve struggled to stay in touch with to insure that we’ll always be friends. Time just doesn’t permit me or most of the people I know to do this.
The friend that means so much to me is a man by the name of Gary Friedman. Gary and I met at work and then after that company we worked together at a few others. Each time we were drawn to one another for a variety of reasons. We have some common interests and we’ve shared a number of life experiences, good and bad with each other.
We devised a system to insure that we’re always friends. A contact, a dinner, something between us even if it’s just a great conversation for 30 mins. or more. Something is the key. Every three months is the time frame. I’m eagerly waiting to hear from him in September when he returns from several exciting trips. By then he’ll also be a Grandfather for the very first time. Another of life’s opportunities to be shared and enjoyed.
Life is always a shared experience. Going back centuries the pineapple was a symbol of someone or someplace that was always a welcome place for strangers and friends alike.
Have you thought about your friends lately? Do you have a friend like Gary? Gary is a positive influence and a role model.
Here’s to the friends we all have in our life.
Our company has re-launched its website and changed its name.
This month we’ve launched the 6th version of our website. This has been the most difficult and the most rewarding. We finally have a much better way of telling people who we are and what we do. Additionally, our ability to expand the site has been dramatically improved. I’d like to thank Mindy King and Katy Rawson-Castro for the hours and hours of work that went in to the thought and development of the site.
Before they wrote one line of code or one line of copy was written by the C4 Support Group we spent weeks talking about its impact and the future needs of the site. If you would like to see the finished site, please click here.
Comments are always appreciated.
DR
July 4, 2008. This is my 61st celebration of the liberties I enjoy as an American. Every year I enjoy, understand and appreciate these freedoms in new ways. Each year the significance of the event itself takes on more meaning.
For me, it began while I was in high school and as a history major I realized how important the freedom we take for granted is to each of us. The world was just starting another new war for America, this time in Vietnam. A place until that moment in time no one had given any thought to, at all.
My Father was in WWII in the Navy and was at Pearl Harbor. He missed the attack by 12 hours but spent his entire enlistment dealing with the repair of all the damage that was done to the many ships that were crippled or damaged from the raid.
My Grandfather was in WWI and had just barely arrived in Europe when it was over. My Great Grandfather was in the Civil War between the states. He was twelve when he went off to fight for the Union. I still have his discharge papers.
The first Governor of New York under the King of England was a Rawson. The Secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was a Rawson. A proud and long history in the United States. Still, no one appreciates anything . . . really . . . until they are about to or have lost it. That’s the way it is, at least in my family.
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Husband, Father, Grandfather, Son, Brother, Uncle, 32 Degree, K.C.C.H. Mason, Serial Entrepreneur, Chairman & CEO, Leader, Speaker, Philanthropist, Veteran, and Friend.
A successful entrepreneur with 23 companies to his credit, Mr. Rawson is focused on solutions that provide sustainable answers to domestic and global issues. 
