Coining

I attended a party while I was in Albuquerque a couple of weeks ago and had a great time seeing old friends--some of whom I only get to see once a year at various writer's conferences. One of the friends I saw was a guy I met at a writer's conference four or five years ago and I can still remember our first meeting. He told me that he was a speaker who wants to be a writer, but he said that he is "grammatically challenged."

I began to tell him everything I knew about the industry and what he could do to improve his writing skills. He soaked up all of the information and kept asking more questions. Over the next few days, whenever I saw him, I'd stop to see how things were going for him at the conference. We kept in touch afterward and still do to this day.

At the party a couple of weeks ago, he asked me if I'd ever heard of a practice called "coining." I said I hadn't. He explained that in the military (he's a former military chaplain), soldiers award a special coin to fellow soldiers/warriors who do something courageous or meaningful for the giver of the coin.

After my friend explained the tradition to me, he took out a beautiful shiny coin and handed it to me. I'm not much of a trinket guy, but with the exception of saying "thanks," I was moved beyond words as I took it from him. But words weren't really necessary in a moment like that.

I'm still carrying the coin around with me everywhere I go. Here's a picture of it: