The Origins of Friendship

I'm sure that everyone has a story or stories involving Sam Johnson. And much like people's perceptions, every story will be different. I've struggled to try and figure out just what my story would be concerning him, and I'm inevitably drawn back to the first time I met the man a scant six years ago. It was a meeting that left me with one inescapable thought about him:

What a jerk.

But you have to understand the nature of the story to see how it got to that point. At the time, I was a curious, somewhat timid lad of twenty some odd years on one of what would be many an adventure at the Comic Box. It may have even been my first trip there (I honestly can't recall it that deeply). But the dispute was born as many a nerd-based dispute is: through a technical misunderstanding.

See, I saw a Heroclix booster box on a shelf that featured Superman clone gone wrong Bizarro, who was wearing a stone tablet that said "Bizarro #1".I made the idle comment to Sam (who was behind the register) that I thought it was hilarious that he'd wear something like that, to which Sam flatly and almost condescendingly replied, "He's been wearing that for years."

I want to tell you that I'm not so petty a person that when someone puts me in my place for not knowing an item of geek-lore, I'm fine with it. But something about the attitude with which the comment was offered just set me off. Not in the, "It's on now, time to kick some @$$!" kind of way but the, "You're on my s*** list, good luck getting off of it," kind of way. Really, how dare he? How was I supposed to know that? And so what if I didn't? Needless to say, I was miffed.

And as I am want to say during many a story, if it had ended there, that would be that. But no, it wouldn't be much of a remembrance if that's the note I left it on, would it?

No, the story here is what happened after that. See, I want to tell you that Sam and I had some long winded feud that went on for years before finally being resolved, but it never happened. I may have been a little indifferent the next few times I saw him, but the truth is I can't remember it. In all honesty, I can't remember one bad thing that the man said or did after that point. Now I'm not saying he's a saint or anything, but after that specific moment in time, I can't recall him ever getting on my bad side.

If nothing else, it means the man got on my good side again, which he must have done by just being the funny, personable guy he was most of the time. I don't know what might have been wrong with him that first day. Maybe he had gotten up on the wrong side of bed, or he had a headache, or maybe he was just defending his geek territory as we all are wont to do some days. But at any rate, the whole thing became so irrelevant over the course of time that I only actually remembered the first incident after being reminded that Sam used to work at Comic Box. That's how far removed it was from me.

So I guess if there's any lesson to be learned here (and there doesn't have to be, but let's pretend there is one here), it would be that shutting people out based on one or two rough meetings isn't always the best idea. It's a bit cliche, but life really is too short for holding petty grudges and pushing people away based on trifling issues. Give people a second chance, or at the very least let them know what they did to offend you. You may find that they never really meant anything by it, and you might just have a chance to make a friend that you never would have.

More later.