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fish

My younger brother Marty lives in a Midwest prairie-style home in La Grange, Illinois with his fabulous family — in the same house I grew up in.

Marty is truly one of my favorite human beings ever made.

Absolutely busting with joy.

He turned his basement, the size of a tennis court, into a full-out zoo. Chickens, ducks, a gillion birds, a mini-horse, the cutest big pig, skunks, whopper turtles, roosters, a lake-full of fish, you name – it’s flying around, swimming around, or trotting around his happy house.

Buses full of classes of kids show up at their house to go to his ‘zoo.’ Every animal is named after somebody he loves. When he walks in the zoo, the animals pile on his arms and head.

He called this morning all pumped up — he just built a fabulous little aquarium on his kitchen table.

He said, “What I’m so excited about, I didn’t make the thing to make me happy — I made it to make the fish happy.”

One of the greatest thoughts I have ever heard a person say.

What a way to look at life. At business. At family. At friends. At community.

To make the fish happy.

I’m so lucky to be a fish in Marty’s beautiful world.

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