Wednesday, January 06, 2016

A thought

Went to a visitation tonight.  Good guy that went to the same church we went to when I was growing up.  He passed away this week.  I spent a lot of time thinking about him today, which surprised me, because I'd only run into him a handful of times in the past 20 years, and few in the past ten, as his health declined.  Still, he was in my thoughts quite a bit today.

John Cooley was a good guy, though.

I was a weird kid.

Not completely weird.   Not in the weirdo setting fires in Old Lady Semple's mailbox kind of way.   Just a curly-headed, heavyset, bookish kid who grew up to 6'3" by the time he was 12.  I probably wasn't that weird.  I felt weird, though.  I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb.  Even among friends, I sometimes felt like an outsider.  I guess all kids feel that way.

I still feel that way, sometimes.  I guess we all do.

John had a way, though.

He never made me feel like I was weird.  He made me feel like part of the group.  He made everybody feel like part of the group.

He was genuinely interested.

He always had a joke and was ready to talk to you about anything.

It may not have meant a thing in the world to him, an adult treating a quiet kid on unsure footing like he was just one of the guys.  It was just his way.  I always appreciated him for that.  The world needs more people like that.


1 Comments:

Blogger Chunkacoal said...

Big T, man, it's been a LONG time since i've knocked on your door. Good to see you still around. Like walking through the old neighborhood seeing that most have moved away and a few old folks still hanging on. Guess i miss Eric at SWG the most. Whatever happened there?
Blogging is back in my blood...that time whore facebook has gotten old.
Anyway, good to see you man. Keep on banging.

12:19 AM  

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