This is my friend.  He is a kind person.  He also massages my ego by saying he reads my blog every day.

We had coffee just now.  I fell into my usual tendency: talking about my life.  On and on and on …  Michel listened politely.

Sometimes it takes me awhile to wake up, but eventually I did.

“Tell me about you”

Thank God I spoke up.  Michel told me this, that and the other thing about scientific projects he has been involved in.  For some of them, he still is.

My knowledge of such things is limited, to use a kind word.  And I’m fine with that.  I suspect I know less about certain topics than the average human being … and no, that’s not false modesty.

Let me give you some words that Michel gave me:

Mathematics

Telecommunications

Epilepsy

Exoskeleton

Robotics

I was particularly taken with a breakthrough in its infancy – having people with a disability wear an exoskeleton to allow them to move better.

I “got” Michel.  I got his commitment to the betterment of human beings.  His pride in being a member of teams that are doing groundbreaking work.  His smile, knowing that he has been an advisor to many Masters and probably PhD students.

But I pressed him on one thing:

Do you get that you have contributed to many people with your work?

That you’ve made a large difference?

Michel tried to rephrase the question towards “we” and “team”, which of course is a valuable part of making contributions to the world.

I kept pressing.  And eventually he acknowledged that he, Michel, does good work.

And so, for me …

Mission accomplished

***

There are a lot of cool folks in this world

I sat with one of them this morning