A therapist for Meriwether Lewis

Oct. 14 1809

Sunday

When the meeting ended, Thom watched Meriwether Lewis an' I walk slowly downstairs (in case Lewis decided to do something wrong...I think Jefferson cared for that man...the "Corps of Discovery" Captain, well known in fame...).

Suddenly, he (Meriwether) turned around, looked at Thomas for one full minute and suddenly ran towards Jefferson in tears.

"What's gotten into ye, now Lewis? Are you alright?"

"I cannot-I-*sniff*just can't! I-*sniff sniff*-can't! I'm such a jerk! I don't deserve to live! I'm terrible! I---"

"Meriwether-"

*sob sob*

"Meriwether..."

(he finally looks up at Thom)

"Yes?"

"If you feel anxious and upset and feel very angry, perhaps you may want to take immense deep breaths...and make sure, like I always say: count to ten..you can do this Sir. I have faith in ye. You can do this."

Meriwether finally calmed down, took out his stress ball and went back downstairs...I waved to Thom and thanked him, followed Meriwether and off we went.

We were walking along in Charlottesville, Virginia when, suddenly he stopped and asked me this: "Would you like to go to the river and fish with me?"

"Sure!" I responded.

So off we went to the river, fishing for fun, whatever fish we could catch.

Meanwhile, while we were calmly fishing (Lewis was taking a break...he didn't realize that he caught a fish, but I sure did, 'cause the pole was moving), we paused and there was a sudden rustle in the bushes. When Lewis heard the rustling from the bushes, he roared: "HALT! WHO GOES THERE?"

There was a slight chuckle kind of laughter going on while the forest man got up from behind the bushes. "What do ye mean: who goes there? didn't you know It was me behind that bush...?" the forest man shook his head in laughter. "I was huntin'!"

It was Meriwether's Corps of Discovery friend, William Clark.

He was quite the adventurous type, strong in body and self aware (if you were to ask him about rain, he'd tell you how self aware he'd be about it).

Lewis and Clark were friendly to one another and a little fond of each other. You could perhaps say they were long lasting friends.

Like companions for example.

Anyway, as I was saying, while William got up from behind the bushes, his friend, Meriwether said: "Oh! very sorry William! I mistook ye for forest hunter...didn't know you were in the forest huntin'."

"It's all right!" William responded. "We'll get things straight in the morn'."

. . .