one last story. i've told it before.
i grew up in suburban dallas. when we moved there, it was farmland. by the time i left, it was fucking plano.
anyways. i grew up conservative. very much so. my ma did her best to make sure i wasn't racist, and i reckon she did her job, but my dad was racist 101. n-bombs all the time. watching football, about politics. did not matter. had he lived to see me marry a hispanic woman...i dunno i kind of wished it happened from a humor perspective.
anyways, i used to work out in east texas in the summer during college. think highway 80, where the town is actually divided by the train tracks. well, one day, i reckoned i needed a haircut. i went to the main drag and to the main barber, and there was a wait i didn't like. so i drove around a bit, crossed the tracks, and i saw a barber pole. it was a pretty ramshackle shack, but there was only one car in the parking lot, so i pulled in.
walked in the door, and very quickly realized, oh shit, i am on the wrong side of the tracks. black barber, black dude in the one chair. it was like the record scratched, you know? anyways, i don't know what possessed this white boy, except maybe that europe trip, to say, "hi, you cut hair here right?"
the barber laughed and said "yes, i do." he shooed the guy in the chair out for me. i said "well, he was here first" and the barber said "he's here all the time. what can i do?"
the guy in the chair just sat down next, and i got a haircut and shave while they talked and talked and talked. it was so funny. only about halfway through did i get the cadence and diction. there was something about a drive to california the two of them took in a rental cadillac. there was a bunch of something other stuff. it was amazing. they just accepted me into their barber shop because i said "hey, you cut hair here, right?"
but that one little experience also changed my life forever.
talk to people. love people. experience people. it's worth it.