Here's Looking at you Bear

This past weekend was Kevin's Bachelor Party in Chicago, thrown by his high school friends. I feel that, to open this post, I feel it appropriate to mention that 15-18 (I lost count) of Kevin's friends from elementary, middle and high school, whom live primarily in Texas, traveled to Chicago for the weekend. As did his brothers.

What I witnessed during the weekend was something I consider special, beautiful even. And, though I've always known what a good person Kevin is, I now have a deeper appreciation for what he represents and consider myself, and ourselves, fortunate to have him as a friend. Yes, this is what this post is about.

On Saturday night, the crew went to Ditka's Steakhouse (Kevin met Ditka. Ditka gave Kevin a marriage talk. The Earth shook, and somewhere in a forest, a Bear shared honey with a faun). There was a podium in the rented private room and at somepoint, everyone in the room gave a speech about Kevin. What I found particularly moving about this, aside from the fact that Kevin still has friendships from as early as Kindergarten, were the sincere words directed at our friend Bear.

To summarize, Kevin embodies all the qualities that are representative of what it means to be `good'. That sounds simple, but, it seems there are a myriad of justifications for deeming someone `good'; they are nice in social situations, they volunteer, they are generous, they call you back, they work with orphans (wink).
What I realized listening to all the speeches was that Kevin is nonjudgemental, loyal and attempts to find good in all that he meets. If he finds it, he respects it and befriends you because of that quality, whatever redeemable quality you may possess. This is also why he hates Taylor Kelly, Greg Carpenter, etc. They have little good, and Bear recognizes that.
The diversity of Kevin's friends is bizarely vast, though the shared opinion of Kevin is uniform: He cares and makes time for you and will stick with you through it all. To me, that defines a good person and, obviously, a good friend.

Mushiest post ever. Here is the pic from the Cubs game. Cheers Bear.
http://www.printroom.com/ViewGalleryPhoto.asp?evgroupid=0&userid=cubsfanfoto&gallery_id=1175994&image_id=4