Twenty years ago today was the worst day of my life: the day Joe Sullivan was killed in a car crash at the age of 23.

Joe had been my friend since the Reagan administration. I haven’t had a better friend nor have we had a better president since. (Those of you who knew Joe know that he would be honored to receive mention in the same sentence as our 40th president.)

They say time heals all wounds, but that’s not true here. Time hasn’t healed this one. If anything I’m more made about this on March 2, 2026, than I was two decades ago. Every day I have another instance of, I wish I could have done this with Joe, seen this with Joe, or talked about this with Joe. Whatever the opposite of a pleasant diversion is, this has been my background noise for 20 years.

Tune in Friday to Math and Musings for a therapeutic retelling of the story, 15 minutes about the man I haven’t spent 15 minutes not thinking about since March 2, 2006.