I first met David Henderson in the fall of 1971. It was my first term of teaching at The University of Western Ontario, and he was here for that year taking courses that would qualify him as an undergraduate honours graduate (courses that, by the way, were the equivalent of Masters' level courses at most schools in the US).
I'm delighted that we have been able to stay in touch with each other off and on over the years, especially in the past few years via Facebook. I think one of the reasons is that David has a love of life, of learning, and of people. This outlook is captured beautifully in a post of his at EconLog a few days ago.
I had been wondering why I didn't connect at all with Bryan's March 9, 2012 post,"My Beautiful Bubble." Like him, I have very specific tastes and I judge everyone. So why do I love interacting with everyday people--at the supermarket, the drug store, heck, even the DMV? Well, my wife put her finger on it. When my friend Fred Jealous, as we were getting ready to patrol the streets of Seaside, along with some black ministers, the night of the Rodney King verdict, said, "David loves a challenge," my wife replied, "David loves people."
David not only loves to connect, he does connect daily. He takes people, all people, seriously; and he interacts as if he is on a constant mission. But he seems to love the entire process.