Well, I skipped covering a school board meeting to go hear Handel’s “Messiah” tonight in Nashville, and ended up running into a school superintendent anyway.

During intermission, as we were stretching our legs, my mother suddenly called out, “Mike! Mike Harris!”

Sure enough, it was my cousin, Clarksville / Montgomery County school superintendent Michael Harris, with his wife Debbie. They were sitting just a few rows ahead of us; we were in the center section and they were in the left section. I’d swapped e-mails with Mike just a month or six weeks ago, but it’s been ages since I’ve seen him or Debbie in person. They’re doing great.

The concert was phenomenal — I’ll post more about it tomorrow, perhaps (it’s already past my normal bedtime as I write this). My parents, of course, enjoyed it as they do every year, and the fourth member of our party, Mrs. Rittenberry, a friend of ours from church, had a wonderful time as well.

It was appropriate to run into Mike at a performing arts event — the very first real play I ever attended, when I was, I guess, in sixth grade or junior high school, was Mike’s senior play at Smyrna High School. It was “Camelot,” and he was King Arthur. (He has a wonderful singing voice.) I was so proud!