Circumstance and serendipity took me to Washington DC earlier this week, a city I visit with the same frequency that the Knicks prevail as NBA Champions.

It was a privilege to receive an invitation to address the attendees at the National Leadership Forum, a nationwide gathering of school superintendents. The three day conference was sponsored by Utah’s Cook Center for Human Connection, an essential nonprofit that focuses on suicide prevention and mental health support.

Sharing my unique message of proactive, expressive gratitude with these pillars of their respective education communities, not to mention acquainting myself with nearly a dozen other presenters, each a luminary in their own right, was a deeply satisfying and enriching experience.

However the mic was only clipped to my lapel for a single hour, and this visit was 48. So after absorbing and enjoying the varying perspectives of a number of my speaking brethren, it was literally a breath of (mostly) fresh air to take a self-guided two-wheeled tour of The District, a city like no other.

Space constraints preclude a blow-by-blow, suffice it to say it was a “Greatest Hits” circumnavigation of the major monuments, memorials and monolithic buildings.

Of equal or even greater satisfaction was savoring a pair of Ruby-rare meetups with two old friends; one a lingering dinner and leisurely evening stroll, the other a crisp coffee date prior to the workday. It disturbs me a bit when people I care for become untethered from my orbit for whatever reason. Getting reacquainted with and catching up with these two blue ribbon buddies was, aside from my brief time on the podium, the highlight of this one-off visit.

Gratitude Abounds.