How many good friends have you lost touch with over the years? We go through stages in our lives where someone who was a close friend is no longer there.

For example, yesterday I saw my best friend from childhood for the first time in 34 years.

Growing up in Columbia, Missouri had its compensations. One of them was two doors down from us on Bingham Rd. - my friend David Holt. When I first met him in the middle of sixth grade, I couldn't have known the ways in which our lives would move on parallel tracks over the years.

We went off to West Jr. High School in 1971. A typical day after school found him beating me at a game of one-on-one basketball. We joined the Boy Scouts together and found the subsequent hikes in the Smoky Mountains to be welcome respites from the tyranny of adolescence.

After a while, our latent entrepreneurial talent began to blossom. We started a lawn mowing business together - me on my dad's riding lawn mower, David doing the trim work.

Later we were the first class to go all the way through Rock Bridge High School. He and I were hard to stereotype, on various sports teams, playing bridge at lunch, me going on mission trips, him continuing in Boy Scouts. I suppose we mostly hung out with a nerdy group.

David's natural leadership skills blossomed in his tech career, most recently as CEO of Lightspeed and as a leader of Playdom.

What a blessing it was to see the man he's become. He's married to a lovely wife, has three children and still loves the Boy Scouts.

Life goes by in a flash; 34 years come and go. Friends like David help us see where we've come from.