I looked up at the clock today and it was 4:17pm. “Ha!” I blurted, laughing. I caught the numerals 4:17 on 4/17/2026. I love these kinds of synchronicities, don’t you? And if that’s not enough, I woke up this morning at 4:17am. I’m not making that up.
Sometimes I find light in my days through synchronicities like that and sometimes through little moments of connection with another person.
In the name of connection, I am send out a Friday night light.
At the crack of dawn today, I was seated next to a man at my morning meeting. That’s why I was up so dang early on a Friday. I sometimes have Friday morning meetings and today I woke up just before the 4:30am alarm.
Anyway, since I’d been the guest speaker at the meeting just a couple of weeks prior, the man sitting next to me asked me to tell him more about what I do for work. During my presentation, I enthusiastically shared my recent experiences covering the Olympics and Paralympics for NBC. But the man wanted to know what I do when I’m not doing that.
I told him I’m gathering stories for families.
And the best thing happened. His wheels immediately started turning. And he told me about his surname and how it was changed at Ellis Island but he doesn’t know what it was originally. He told me he once met a waiter in New York City who shared his same uncommon surname and they tried to piece together whether or not they were related. They decided not. One family had come from Poland and the other had Russian Jewish roots. But they made a connection.
Then he told me a story about his grandfather who was one of nine children. He lived in the Jefferson Park section of Chicago in the 1920s, was a butcher and also the breeder of little dogs. I can’t remember what kind — chihuahuas maybe? Don’t worry, this story is not going where you just thought it might.
The butcher had a frequent visitor who always arrived flanked by two henchmen. The man was not interested in the butcher’s meat, but instead in the little dogs he was breeding. Every time a new litter was ready, the man and his sidekicks showed up and bought two, three, four dogs at a time.
Why did he buy so many of these fabulous little dogs? To pay off judges, cops and more.
Can you guess who the customer was?
I could see my friend’s joy in sharing this tale, and he concluded wistfully that he needed to write it down for his kids or one day it will be a lost story.
Exactly. Get the stories down somehow. If you need help, I’m here for you.
This is your first Friday night light. Have a beautiful weekend.