Gotham, Remotely

Yesterday after I work I received a surprise message out of the blue from a friend of mine whom I hadn't seen in many years. We went to high school together, and later he played a key role in my early days in Austin back in '89, letting me crash in his apartment for a few days while I was looking for a place to live. These are the kinds of acts of friendship that stick with me,  and can earn a lifetime pass of gratitude from me, so it was very pleasing to hear from him.

Back then I remember him doing computer programming on his Macintosh. "You can write programs on a Mac?" I remember asking him, in my naivite. The irony of that question is rather poignant, given that's now what I spend my days doing for a living.

He lives in New York, where for years he has been an attorney. He has a wife and kids. He wrote to say he enjoys reading my blog. I had no idea he was among my readers.

I told him that these kind of comments are what keeps me going doing this. So long as I know there are a few people out there reading me, and that they are people I give a damn about, then somehow I find this to be very rewarding.

We exchanged messages about what I do for a living. I told him that I work for a New York based company, headquartered in a famous landmark building in a lower Manhattan neighhood that is named for the building itself.

My first boss for this job  actually lives here in Portland, where I got hired two years ago, after a short interview around the block from the Portlandia statue.  But since then my work responsibilities have ballooned and lately many of the people I deal with on a daily basis are in the New York area. I know their voices, and would probably recognize them from their Skype profile pictures, but I have never yet met any of them in person.

When I first started working with New Yorkers again on a daily basis, it was a steep transition, but one that was easy to make, because I've done it before. I remembered quickly that working in New York is a "contact sport" (ironically my supervisor there is big ice hockey player). One of the quotes I remember formulating to myself, while working in the City back in the day was everybody in New York has their own agenda.

Actually this is true everywhere on the planet, if you ask me, but in New York no one really pretends that it is otherwise. It's refreshing to me. It feels more honest.

Another pleasing aspect of our conversation was that he told me that he had particularly enjoyed my posts and pictures from my visit last February to Front Sight, the firearms training school in Nevada where I learned to properly handle and shoot a Glock 9mm pistol. It turns out he went to Front Sight back in the late Nineties, when they were still in California, and were a much smaller operation. I told him he wouldn't recognize the place now---it's a big family-friendly experience.

My friend has long been the kind of person who believes strongly in the principles of personal liberty, and has been outspoken over the years, in his personal life and in his work, of putting his money where his mouth is. This often rubbed people the wrong way, but I always respected this. I'm somewhat ashamed at how long it took me to wake up to such things.

He and I probably are not of like mind on every issue (in fact I know we are not), but I don't really care about that. I don't mind disagreeing with someone. I just figure we see the world differently, and strive to learn from them. Life is a journey of a discovery, as they say. I'm willing to bend my views to accomodate the Truth, if it is indeed the Truth (and I do believe there is such a thing as Truth). What I care about is whether someone is trying to take away my freedom.

As they say, there are two kinds of people: those that just want to be left alone, and those that won't leave you alone.

I told him that the Front Sight pictures I had posted here and on Facebook had cost me a decades-long close friendship with someone we both knew from high school (not by my choice, but theirs). It had saddened me at first, but I've gotten to the point in my life where I know when it is time to cut off the past and move on without looking back. Once you do that a couple times, it becomes easier.

I said that I didn't regret those posts. I knew exactly what I was doing, and had wanted to make my position on the issue loud and clear. I would do it again in a minute even if it cost me every friend I had.

We made plans to meet up in New York next time I'm there. Just making the resolution makes it more likely I'll return there in the near future. It's amazing how far I'll detour, just to have a drink or two with an old friend.

Heck, I might even drop by that famous landmark building where my co-workers hang out, and have few drinks with them too. But as far as ice hockey goes, I prefer to watch from the bleachers.