Four Way Ties

Jen asked me last night just how our "GNO" foursome came to be last night. Our "origin story". I began by trying to pinpoint its earliest incarnation: a mix of assorted colleagues meeting routinely for afternoon coffee in the atrium of IL1. What a space that was, and what a historical time to have been at Apple. We gradually and organically settled into a core of four friends, making fluid adaptions of schedules and destinations to accommodate shifts in our respective availability and proximity. Coffee became lunch. Lunch became dinner. In fact, the term "GNO" came well after "TNL" was first coined in January 2007.

This foursome's continued success lies in its unique balance of characters and personalities, providing just the right balance of tension and concession at any given time. The rewarding and supporting pros of this band of brothers, with our shared interests and decades of history, far outweighs the occasional white noise that comes with exclusionary dialogs found within the pits of pearl-isms, Confoti callbacks, SciFiDeepDives, Latimerizations, and the rare audible "record-scratch" WTF pothole moments that can occur riding along life's highway. On top of that, some of our spouses have connected and are fostering their own individual bonds in parallel.

Jess once shared an article about how hard making friends can be as older men. I often reflect on the good fortune of having several friendships of this caliber. I count these three amongst that innermost circle. They are not only friends for life; like a few key others often referenced in these pages, they are the friends of a lifetime.

Oh, I'm a lucky man

To count on both hands

The ones I love

Some folks just have one

Yeah, others they got none

"Just Breathe" - Pearl Jam