Encounters With The Past: Part Two

Let's recap. No sooner than I think about Eric and make him a subject of a blog entry he suddenly appears in a grocery store. Now try and tell me "The Book of Revelations" is "merely the ravings of a lunatic" as Thomas Jefferson (whoever he is. He sounds like a cast member on The Muppets) once put it.

---The Encounter ---

We look at one another and immediately shake hands. Not one of those gentlemanly hand shakes but the laidback, street cred variety. We begin to talk. Catching up is a futile exercise but we give it a shot. I introduce him to my gal. "I've heard so much about you from the guys" she says. He gives a perplexed look. "Why do they bother talking about me?" He soon goes over what he's been up to: from classical ballet to managing family properties to shacking up with a girl with two kids to dating a radio personality to even taking part in a small production porn scene.

Soon the conversation moves towards me. I'm always deliberately evasive with this sort of stuff. I fear that if you've not witnessed my life unfold you wouldn't understand my decisions. Then again, it was Eric and this is the last guy on earth that would judge anyone. So I let him in on a few things.

"I was jealous of you in school," he says. He then looks at Jen and continues. "I used to try and copy his writing and his sense of style." Jen asks for more. "On the soccer field he played with such panache everyone was envious. I wanted to have that sense of artistry." I laugh and add, "I guess all those negative thoughts led to two ACL tears."

I was somewhat embarrassed but flattered. Then he said something that I never knew I'd ever hear, "His style on the field was under rated. It was so subtle that people overlooked it."

Like I said. Eric is smart.

My style was not conducive (indeed popular) with the brutal, physical nature of modern soccer.

We close up the conversation and tell him to contact me. It's crazy to live within minutes of someone you've known all your life and not see them more often, no?

"So that's the legendary Eric," Jen says.

"Yup. And I was envious (in a good way) of him too."