Matthew Burnette, Staff Writer

“Oreo doesn’t actually put more crème on a Double Stuf cookie. They just spread it less evenly so it looks like there is more on one side.”

That was a hypothesis in a nutshell presented to our group at a church game night as we waited for the rest of the crowd to shuffle in. The amateur cookie scientist who presented it was my friend Jim.

Jim has this incredible way of figuring things out.

When he decided he wanted a tailgate on his truck, instead of buying one and having it installed, he built his own out of PVC pipe.

When he needed a system to supply water to the house he was having built, he just put together a pump system that’s probably more efficient than most.

I can’t remember whether he had already done the Oreo research, was going to do the research, or even if he ended up doing it at all, but if there was somebody who was going to get Nabisco to change the way they distributed filling in a Double Stuf Oreo, it was going to be Jim.

Jim also has a keen knack for knowing when somebody needs some words of encouragement.

He worked in law enforcement for decades and had gone through some interrogation training so there’s no lying to Jim. He can almost immediately pick up on it if you weren’t giving him the whole story or trying to hide something.

Even over the phone, if you aren’t 100% truthful, he picks up on it.

Now, I must explain that I never outright tried to get anything past him. The scenario was usually him asking how I was doing and me not being as open about something that was bothering me at the time.

He never forces you to tell him what’s bothering you. He just asks, “Are you sure about that?” If you feel like talking, he’s an open ear that never criticizes and helps you work through your problem. If you don’t, then that’s okay too.

I have a necklace that I wear around my neck every day. It’s a dog tag that has a wooden cross glued to the front of it. Pressed in the surface of the dog tag is the phrase “Every action has reaction.”

The necklace was a gift from Jim, the saying being one of his favorites. He had made it with a press machine that he had from when he made custom dog tags for people and was waiting for the right person to give it to.

For a while I had been talking with Jim through some issues that I had been having that required some pretty crucial decisions. Then, on a Sunday morning, Jim’s wife Lucia, an incredible person in her own right, handed me an envelope with a note and the necklace.

I can’t say that the necklace immediately helped me make a decision, but what it has done since is remind me that my decisions matter any time I feel myself on the verge of making a bad one.

(Luckily, that’s not that often, but I digress…)

On another occasion, he advised me to go into a situation with the metaphorical guns “drawn but not a-blazing,” cautioning me to be prepared when going in, but not to make the situation worse from the get-go.

Jim has this infectious sense of kindness that’s rooted in a strong and unwavering faith.

The reason that his wife Lucia was the one to deliver the necklace and note to me from Jim was because he was at home fighting a battle with Multiple Myeloma, a battle he’s still fighting to this day.

Despite that, he reached out when I needed it the most.

You rarely hear him say a coarse word about anyone. If you ever catch him talking about anything remotely political, he’s not advocating for what’s best for parties or politicians but for what’s right for everyone.

He often gives the caveat before offering solutions that he’s speaking from “the world according to Jim,” and there’s rarely been a time where “the world according to Jim” didn’t sound like a world I’d like to live in.

My life has been riddled with people who have helped me along the way in various ways, and I’m a big proponent of letting those people know the impact they’ve made.

If my timing is right on this one, Jim should be reading this either on or the day before his birthday, so I thought what better opportunity to do that?

Hopefully I’ve inspired you to reach out to that person or people who have made an impact on your life.

At the very least, as I have on so many occasions, I hope you take away a bit of wisdom from my friend Jim.