Mario, I was honored to call you a friend long ago (8310).
You were one of those rare people that possessed the gift of making everyone around you happier for having known you. You taught an impressionable 18 year old how to find humor and irony in day-to-day activities. How to find absurdity in the mundane. How to see daily existence not as a job, but as a chain of comical, ironic events that are to be participated in to the benefit of all, especially ones self.
You were one if the first people to help me see that we don't live IN a situation, we CREATE the situation we live in. As I went on to pursue a career based largely on my creative skills, from time to time I would think back and recall your ability to find humor in almost any situation. I could go on about the times we would put a tie on and pretend to be the manager to customers, or working the counter together and seeing who could talk to customers in the strangest dialect and get away with. But the point here is that you showed me that creativity is born out of perspective not necessity. I have tried to carry this lesson with me through life and it has benefited me greatly over the years. I am a better person for having known you and am thankful for the time we had together. You will be missed. Rest in peace friend.
