I have said many times on this forum that I meet heroes every day. One of the points I seek to make with this observation is that often we don't see the forest for the trees.........or the ukelele for the tiples..........or something like that. You get the drift. And so it is with our Rick. When you first meet him, you are immediately drawn to his skill as a musician. Fair enough. But if you have any intuition and depth to you, you quickly begin to notice other things. Like the people he surrounds himself with. In his friends, with every kind of quirk, talent, look, imaginable. He has friends that are shy, and outgoing. He has friends of immense talent and those that wish they did. And in every case, Rick is there doing what he can to help them with their aspirations. I once heard him describe his job as a guitar player as "doing what it takes to make the other sound good." My observation on him is that he applies that same philosopy to his everyday life. This is a man who cares.

I have spent a good deal of my life watching people, studying them. I have learned to differentiate between what we call heroes, and what constitutes true heroism. Rick is truly a hero. He might use something he loves and is good at (music) as the tool. But what he really seeks is to understand folks, empathize with them, and help them to reach for whatever it is they are reaching for. Yep.............I think that pretty well describes a hero to me.

All the best,

Mick