The Mikes in my Life

A few days ago, it hit me that Mikes have figured prominently in my life. Mike Riek was the love of my life. Mike Cincola was my favorite massage client. (We had such a smashing repoire that his wife was jealous, and Mike abruptly ended our weekly massages with a $700 tip.) Mike Phan is my compassionate cardiologist, and Mike Butman is my dear nephrologist. (Perhaps doctors don't mean that much to you, dear reader, but for someone in my position, having doctors I trust and can relate to means the world.) And most importantly, Archangel Michael.

When this notion of the noteworthy Mikes entered my head, I wondered if this has been the archangel's way of telling me he's watching over me. Sending me Mikes to take care of me on Earth. Certainly Mike Cincola took care of me financially, and of course it did me a whole bunch of good to see a man once a week who I really liked and who really liked to see me. And I've written previously about how Drs. Phan and Butman are rooting for me, doing their damnest to get me on the transplant list, taking care of me physically and medically, as well as boosting my spirits.

But what about Mike Riek? In so many ways, Mike was a huge detriment. Psychologically and mentally abusive, neglectful, self-centered, self-absorbed, filled with rage, self-deprecating, self-destructive. But he certainly took care of me sexually for four years. So, sure, Mike too could have functioned as the archangel's emissary.

And now one more Mike has been added to the mix--Mike Leon, Aaron's artist friend whom I've commissioned to render the archangel as I saw him on that April day in 2000. Mike said he's long been interested in Archangel Michael. I hope to sit down with Mike soon and work on a sketch of that experience. Something like an artist who sketches a suspect from a witness's memory. A little more muscle. Hair a bit more tussled. Blinding light of his minions to either side and to infinity in back of him. I can see him so clearly, but I want so much to have the likeness rendered so that I can gaze upon it many times a day.