I lost touch with someone back in '07 when they moved away and now this person is back in town to live intends to be a new friend all over again. I realized that maybe I did not know him so well all those years ago and so rather than just go here and there and look for a good or interesting time of cultural explorations and participation in the arts, that I would ask him some questions about his family, his relationship to his ethnicity and childhood religion, if any, and so on. I'm not looking for his autobiography, just for information I haven't known that might help me get to know him better.
One day he challenged me about my long time interest and participation in genealogy and I was surprised that he didn't know how important it has been and is to me.
I was even more surprised to learn that he is one of those people who thinks that genealogy people are all "stuck" in the past. (I believe we can at least learn from the past, especially if we contrast it with the present, and happen to be someone who loves futurism too!)
I became dismayed feeling that he might never at least respect and appreciate that this of such great importance to me and my life. That he would probably never want to research with me side by side at a library. And I checked any impulse to offer to get him started with his own research or to use research to get information that he wasn't telling me.
"You've probably "poked around" he said, twiddling his fingers, and already know about my divorce," he said. I told him that years ago closer to when we first met and he was telling me about it I had checked the divorce index in another state but that I had not and was not going any further. (Too bad, from some things he told me I imagine he has some great things to find, especially on his mom's side!)
Ah well, we cannot all understand or approve of other's avocations or professions, even when they are totally legal and legit!
