This past week my wife and I visited my brother Neil in Denver to celebrate his retirement. Neil has been working for a US government institution for over 40 years. In that time he has accumulated a tremendous amount of respect and good will from the people he has worked with. I can't go into detail about what he did -- in fact he did so many things it might be impossible to sum up his accomplishments.
For instance, he seems to have taken the lead in creating a digital recordkeeping system to replace the analog ones that they used when he showed up. (And no, he had no formal training in the problems modernizing a very diverse collection of data.) This was just one vital transformation that Neil took part in during his 40+ year career.
Family members and close friends who showed up at the dinner and ceremony got to hear what his bosses and colleagues thought of these accomplishments. To put it briefly, Neil was their north star, their Polaris.
I have a high opinion of both my brothers (my other brother Kent just recently wound up a long career as an airline pilot) but it is really something to hear a close relative equated with Polaris.
But you know, I can believe it.
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