Oddly, the Harvard Square institution that I was most excited to see this past weekend when I was back at Harvard was not any of the buildings, but the Spare Change vendor outside Au Bon Pain. I didn't see him during the weekend, but Monday morning as I was walking by, there he was, greeting passing ladies with his usual mixture of charm and lunacy and passing gentlemen with his usual mixture of bravura chumminess. He spotted me grinning at him like an idiot as I approached, and opened his arms in a welcoming gesture, smiling beatifically. I laughed. "You're still here!"

"I'm still here," he agreed, smiling back at me.

"For four years, every time I walked by, you brightened my day," I told him.

"Why, thank you," he replied, "And where are you now?"

So I told him. I told him how life had brought me to Oxford, what I was studying, and why I had returned for a short while. He listened, smiling, and congratulated me on my successes. I bought a Spare Change from him and tipped him. He thanked me and we parted ways, both still smiling at our encounter. I doubt there is any Harvard student who doesn't know about him. It was so comfortable and reassuring to see his ray of sunshine undiminished. He's a reminder that a sunny demeanor and a little extra effort can transform the ordinary and mundane into the special and life-changing. Long may he live.