“Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray, While Jove’s planet rises yonder…”

– Home thoughts from the Sea, Robert Browning (1845)

On the surface, they were obviously dissimilar, Jimmy hirsute, Mitch glabrous, Tuli unveiled. Jimmy was invariably dapper, replete with ascot and pocket square; Mitch was a stellar athlete, captain of his wrestling and basketball teams, Tuli an acclaimed physician, beloved pediatrician.

Jimmy was the son of a legendary jurist, born with a silver spoon, raised in a majestic environment, the others, children of the outer-boroughs. Two prematurely lost their dads; one was outlived by his.

Their paths crossed, Jimmy and Tuli residing in the same building, Mitch and Tuli playing basketball together, but the three never truly became friends.

What united them was more important than what differentiated them. Indeed, in all three cases, it defined them. Each was jovial.

Their approach to joviality differed. Jimmy mastered the sardonic ironic observation made hilarious by its veracity. Mitch relied on personal farcical anecdotes told so enthusiastically resistance was futile (no matter how often previously heard.) Tuli was the classic borscht-belt comedian, possessing an encyclopedic reservoir of jokes hair-triggered by any commonality.

Their destination however, was the same, each determined to put a smile on our face.

Misery demands company, to the accompanists’ detriment. They demanded our merriment, to our........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)