Sensitive Geek MAN: There is no crying in Baseball

I am not a 'Sports' person.

Growing up as a boy, this causes some sociological issues. A big way that boys hang out or play and get to know each other is through sports. If you are a boy that doesn't like sports, then you have a significant handicap in making other boy friends.

It isn't like I didn't try. I was in soccer as a kid, but I was the kid who just stood in the middle of the field staring at the sky or a tree or kicking an imaginary ball rather than the real one. Needless to say I didn't excel.
I also kept trying to play with my friends. I shot hoops, I hit baseballs, I tried to catch footballs, nothing really clicked. The friends of mine who were kind allowed me to be horrible but still play without mocking, but I never enjoyed it.
It wasn't that there aren't sports that I like. I like climbing, I like downhill skiing, but the issue is that you don't really do those together. You only need one other person to climb, and you don't need anyone to ski. So those sorts of activities aren't good at bonding and team building.

What I excelled at was video games, but this was at the beginning of video games, so it wasn't culturally accepted to sit around and play video games all day. I also was good at 'make believe' games, but my male friends grew out of that faster than I did. Especially seeing as I still haven't.

Finally, in college things started to coalesce. Not that I got better at sports, just that it became easier to find people who liked the things I like. Also, as I have gotten older, I have started to find things to like in sporting events. It will never be my thing, but relationships are partly about compromising so everyone can benefit.
So i watch the Super Bowl, and even enjoy the game, although I am really there to talk, eat, and watch the commercials.
I go to the (very) occasional basketball game, and (again) enjoy the game, but am really there to talk, eat, and watch the spectacle that happens when the team isn't playing.

But I will never get the appeal of baseball.

Sensitive Geek MAN: Say Hello to my little friend

I am always the first person up in my house on the weekdays, and today is no exception.  It is just before 7 as I am writing and I have already been on a run and eaten breakfast, checked all my email, and now written this post.

While being up isn't different, getting all that other stuff done is. Usually I need to be out of the house by 6 in order to make it to work by 7:30, but today I am taking off work to go stand up in a friends wedding. I enjoy weddings. I usually have fun at them, and I am still somewhat of a romantic (regardless of what my wife may think), so the idea of weddings appeals to me.

This particular wedding is interesting, because i am standing up in it, and because this particular friend and I have not know each other long in the Grand Scheme.

However, he is one of those people with whom I have developed a particular and special bond, and quickly at that. I hope anyone reading understands what I mean. A person who very quickly gets you and whom you get. One of those friendships that becomes tight rapidly and is naturally relaxing. It's very nice.

I have had several of those types of friendships over the years. I am happy to say that I am still friends with almost all of them, regardless of my lack of long distance communication skills. That is another nice thing about those types of friendships: distance and time are less of a hindrance than with other friendships.  Which is good, since for some unknown reason, many of my friends of this sort feel the need to move rather far away once we have our friendship established.

Now, I don't want you to think that I somehow value these friends more. The value of a relationship is not the ease of the relationship. It isn't necessarily that these are better friends, although some of them make up some of my very close friends. These friends just come more easily and quickly. There is an appeal to that.  However, I also find that there is a great deal to be said for friends with whom I have had to put in a lot of work and years of time. These friends have been proven by fire.  We may not have as much in common naturally and our times together may not be as peaceful, but we have proven the friendship time and time again, and it has grown us in doing so.

Really, I am thankful that God brings these different types of relationships to us. I learn things from each of my friendships; other than Himself, they are the best teacher He's given me.