Turned out to be a nice weekend 'round these parts. We held a party at the house on Sat for my daughter who turned 11, and my nephew who turned 2. Neighbors, friends, and bbq. Doesn't get much better than that.
Sunday was spent cleaning the house while mom slept in (Mothers Day present... better than a new Lexus!), and then over to the in-laws for dinner.
Along the travels were trips to the grocery store, Target, liquor store, beer store, etc. I ran into a guy I had known growing up, and was quite a good friend growing up. We had lost touch after an incident that involved poker of all things.
We're talking about 15 years of not seeing this guy. We had heard from friends and family how each other was doing, but we never spoke. Nor made an attempt to speak. Why?
Well, let's just say the poker game we last saw each other at was less than friendly. He was never much of a player, and doesn't play anymore today. But that last night ended in a very heated argument, and one of us ending up through a door.
The details are of no consequence, other than a stupid argument came between friends about something retarded in a hand of poker, which led to a complete separation of what was a pretty good friendship.
The pity of it was that the rest of the guys stopped getting together, and we all just floated our separate ways. This was a good group of guys. But two egos collide and the group suffers needlessly.
Now, we were all young back then. Today, I would like to think cooler heads prevail.
But back then a little testosterone and some bullshit during a poker game managed to take away 15 years of experiencing the lives, missing opportunities, and just having some good times, with guys you already knew and know.
We did however speak at the pizza place, and guess what happened. We talked about that night, and each said our apologies. We traded back and forth with experiences, careers, family, etc.
And now we are having a beer. Probably tonight, or this afternoon. Now, this is a goddamn boring story, and who the fuck cares, and I'm not really trying to make a point.
But I have thought long and hard this weekend about teaching my kids how to recognize that these things happen. But they're never worth missing out an entire lifetime of experience with people who help shape who you become.
7 comments:
This is a great, if sappy, post.
Hey, I love a good metaphor. Could you come up with a different conceptual bit of linguistics?
As to your crotch, it obviously has no standing in the matter. No shock that.
Lesson for us youngins. Heck I may end up in the same boat if I cant let stupid beats not piss me off as much...
Awwwwwwwwwwww.
Almost a Hallmark moment if it weren't for that bit about your crotch.
Perhaps you should use the new found enlightenment and try to catch up with your old pal Brent with an "n" !.......just sayin
Fascinating concept.
Glad it worked out in this case.
For those of us NOT so young and still considering the probability of going to jail at a reunion, this crap came out more metaphoric than you may have expected.
We'll discuss my "crotch-shampoo," over a cheap Scotch.
Giving up good friends because of 'that one,' is seriously one of the most painful experiences in life.
Losing a parent or child, are just about the only thing I can think of that top walking away from your best 6 to 20 friends.
But sometimes. Sometimes the good of the many..... and all that crap.
Do you want Head and Shoulders or Pantene?
Lost a lot of softball friends that way, seeing them around the diamond now with kids I'm slowly getting back into that group of guys that spent nearly every weekend having a BBQ/beer fest at someone's house.
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