A Lighter Touch

For P, a story:

Over the course of three years, I've gone out on some fairly unbelievable dates. These dates were so bad that I could get a world record for bad dating in the track and field events, if dating was say, a decatholon. To continue the metaphor, my date on Monday could be equated to a javelin event, but instead of throwing a spear into the field, we just threw comments at each other.

I'll call the guy Moose. I had been talking to Moose over IM for about a month. Moose does private contracting as a mechanic on large military vehicles, primarily in war zones, which is where most military vehicles end up at some point. He's been back from Iraq for a couple of months and got online to meet new people. What's most interesting about Moose is that he doesn't work and doesn't plan to work anytime soon. He's looking at year's of free time. When I asked him what he does during the day, his reply was, "Play with my dog, golf, or shoot". "Shoot what?" I asked, genuinely curious as to what someone would shoot at all day. He replied, "I go to a range and either shoot skeet or targets." I think my reply was something as non-committal as, "Hmm...interesting." He asked if I wanted to go shooting with him. I ended up saying no because of my firm belief that dating should not live ammunition - really at any point, but especially in the beginning.

I'm glad that I went with my gut on this decision because at dinner with Moose we got into a "discussion" about the significance of the Confederate Flag. He believes that it is a symbol of Southern pride as a battle flag. I'm like, "Sure. I agree with you. It was a battle over the right to have slaves. What exactly is there to be proud about?" He said that it for him it's not a symbol of racism and slavery. I argued that the meaning of symbols is decided collectively, from the aggregate, not the individual...and on and on we went. I consider myself lucky that no one had a gun. It might have gotten ugly.

The date ended and I fled into the car, leaving Moose standing on the sidewalk. I was pretty sure that I was never going to hear from him again, but he surprised me by contacting me again to ask if I wanted to watch the next UFC fight with him. If I had to rank all the things that I find interesting in the world, UFC fighting is near the bottom, probably ranking close to golf and elk hunting. Although, I probably shouldn't speak definitively because I've never done either of those two activities. Let's just call it an educated guess.