Jerks

There is just no other way to describe some people but as jerks.

My 50th High School Graduation reunion had both ups and downs. Finally, after many, many reunions there were finally two versions of the reunion this past year. There was a Friday night gathering at a local Elks Club. There was the “real” gathering at a golf club in a banquet room the next night.

It was obvious there was some sort of friction either between reunion planners or something akin to that. People I expected to see and talk to were not at the Friday night event. But It was fun to see and talk to those people who were there. I think there was some disagreement about having two events and how the one (in a bar) might detract from the “real” one. I’m not privy to any insider information, I have lived 2000 miles away, across the country, for 37 years, so I don’t really know what was stirring under the suface. But there was something.

The second event got off to an awkward start for me as people all had different understandings of what time the event was to start. People arrived anywhere between 4:30 and 7:30 thinking that is when it started.

People didn’t mingle much, from my perspective, as table groups had already formed by the time I arrived.

I did get to talk to an old friend who I had become estranged from because of the heated differences that have torn our country apart. I felt she had been nasty in many things she had said, and I could not have these words keep digging at me, they really bothered me, so I cut off contract via a social app to save my sanity.

I was glad to reestabish contact with her. It was rather weird and actually reaffirming that as our chat ended, she did tell me that she supports everthing Trump is doing. There was no need to say that, but she had to say it.

Another person I had gone to school with since first grade wouldn’t speak to me. He had unfriended me on a social app because I commented I was shocked by a racist cartoon, sexist too, he had posted. I guess I humiliated him by commenting on his behavior.

I had forgotten how bitter these spats can become. He apparently never forgave me.

I was genuinely glad to see some people there but I did not have extensive conversation with them.

Other people I could have gotten along without seeing or talking to, but ended up having short interactions with said some really weird stuff. I had some difficulty with the train I had been on, we had to wait for a part to arrive and replace whatever broke, so this guy strikes up a conversation with me and feels that he has to tell me about how he rode a train on the east coast once and he. walked through a car filled with an ethnic group that he said smelled so bad he could scarcely make it through the traincar. I really couldn’t say anything. I was just gob-smacked at the overt racism this person chose to show to me.

Some people are just jerks, I think I go to these reunion type things just to remind myself of that. Fortunately truly evil people are few and far between. Jerks are usually just unhappy people and seeing my friend from the little country church I attended, and a few beaming smiles when others saw me was worth it all.