Dichotomy

I met two interesting gentlemen today. They couldn't have been more different in personalities and life choices.

Scott is the owner of a sports memorabilia store here in our area. I went there today to purchase gifts. Jamie has been a patron for years so I took his recommendation and went there to shop. I walked into the store, he asked if he could help me and I took him up on his offer. I explained what I was looking for, my price range and areas of interest. When I told him my price range and the sports personalities I was interested in, another gentleman in the store snorted and started laughing.

Being the not born here but bred in New York girl that I am, I said out loud is he laughing at me? Scott immediately clarified that the gentleman in question did not work for him. I ignored the fool and Scott helped me make my selections and then headed to the back of the store to get my purchases ready.

Snort Guy wandered over to me and started engaging me in conversation. Now here's the thing. People like talking to me and even more so, like telling me their life story. I'm not sure what it is...but I seem to be a life story magnet. I enjoy it. I love hearing how people came to be who they are...what circumstances brought them to cross paths with me intrigues me.

As it happens, this guy was an art dealer who spent a lot of time traveling across the country in a truck for the last 30 years attending art auctions and running charity auctions. Let me correct myself, he was not actually the art dealer, he worked for the art dealer as I discovered when he told me that he should have been a millionaire for all the money he made for the owners. He said he sacrificed a regular life because he loved being on the road. He was clearly bitter about dealers and the money they made. As I spent more time with him, I noted his threadbare jacket, his worn out LL Bean boots with no heels, his too short jeans above the boots. He was extremely knowledgeable about sports, every sport, every team, insane knowledge, idiot savant/RainMan like.

He finally took his leave and that brings me to Scott. Based on the conversation I witnessed between Scott and Snort Guy, I guessed they knew each other for a couple of years. Not so. Today was the first time they had ever met. Scott told me about a few personalities he had met over the year similar to Snort Guy....filled with knowledge but no ability to apply that knowledge to every day practical situations, blaming other people for what went wrong in their lives.

We chatted some more and he told me about his daughter, Hannah, who had passed away at the age of 14 months after an 8 month battle with illness and his daughter, Samantha, who is now 14 months old and was born after five years of trying to conceive. He showed me pictures of his daughters, gorgeous, dark haired, big rosy cheeks, big dark eyes, gorgeous girls. Hannah Molly was named for his father who was killed crossing the street when Scott was 19 and for Scott's beloved grandmother. Scott said he named his daughter after the two people he loved the most and he lost all three. Hannah and Sam look very much alike.

Here's the thing. Snort Guy decided to blame the lack of success in his life on others. He acknowledged his life choices led him to where he is in life today. Scott, who in my opinion had every reason to want to curl up and die, forged ahead by having another baby and setting up a charitable foundation in the memory of his beloved Hannah.

The dichotomy of those personalities touched me today.