One of my customers is a state agency that provides for the mentally handicapped. I was called to one of the group homes today to make a repair to the fire alarm system. I have a master key to get into all of these homes, and mostly there is no one there during the day. I stop at each of them and test the fire alarm twice a year.

In the basement, there is an area with a couch, coffee table tv and dvd player. Piled all around this are toy fire trucks, fire fighter's helmets and a surprisingly good copy of a fire fighter's bunker coat with the name Ricky on the back of it. Stacked on the coffee table are all of the movies with fire fighters: Backdraft, Ladder 49 and Towering Inferno. At various times the staff at this home have told me that Ricky spends all of his free time in this little corner of the basement wrapped in his fantasy world where he is a fire fighter, bravely rescuing people and putting out fires.

Today, after ten years or so, I finally met Ricky. He is a slightly built, balding man in his mid to late forties.......

Sometimes we do not appreciate the gifts we have.