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A Camping Neighbor, of All Things

It has been a long time since an impudent camper had the effrontery to move in on my dispersed campsite. My campsite. I took an instant dislike to the guy and to his large wide-jawed dog.

But he was a real camper, and you have to admire that. All his junk was in the back of a regular cab pickup truck. No cap. In no time he had his tent and tarp set up. He used a shovel to dig a drainage ditch to empty out some of the puddles that were threatening to trap us. (So I'm not the only person who does silly things like that.) The campsite was at 10,000 ft. It was raining day and night, as it is prone to do in the Colorado high country.

Coffee Girl sneaked away from me and went over to see his rather intimidating dog. But he was young and playful, and soon they were wrestling and frolicking to their hearts' content.

He had an amazing ability to spot elk on a ridge above tree-line, maybe 2000 feet above us. With his naked eye! He got out his snooper scope, and it was all I could do to see them in his scope. That wasn't the only example of his phenomenal ability to spot wildlife.

There was a good reason for this skill. He had been a hunter and guide all his life, including Alaska. But he lived in Texas, so Colorado was his area of expertise.

My dog's collar slipped off because it was too large and loose. I admitted that I had made of mess of adding another hole in the collar by trying to drill through the nylon collar. He suggested that I heat a nail on the stove and then poke/melt it through the nylon collar. Well duh, why hadn't I thought of that? It worked well.

Perhaps the lousy weather drove us to more conversation than we would normally have had. The last thing he did was tow me out to the main road with his four wheel drive truck. We left quite good buddies.

But what is the moral of this story? Have I made a mistake by camping alone too much? I seldom feel a desire to "converse" with most people. Why is that? Is that the sign of a recluse or misanthrope?

If disappointment results from excessive expectations, well then, we must pound our expectations down into the mud. But then we give up entirely, which is not a happy ending either. That is the conundrum: no matter how you adjust your expectations, the result seems unhappy.

There might be a third choice, a subtle one: don't expect a good result today, but leave the door open to a lucky event in the future. I find it difficult to maintain such balance and equipoise.
 
So goes my usual thinking. But what happened with this fellow shows that the calculus of expectations doesn't explain everything. It was easy for a stranger's conversation to please me, under the right conditions. What a pleasant surprise! Maybe this applies to other curmudgeons out there. It is why I am writing about it.

Perhaps the secret lies in the topics of conversation: most people rattle on about the standard Ten Questions. They want to be some sort of entertainer, with their dumb jokes. The quips remind me of television or Facebook. Or they think they are going to win the other person over with their magnetic or attractive personality. I simply am not "buying" what they are selling.

But I love talking to people who know things, who approach any new topic with a sense of perspective, know tricks of the trade, and how to solve problems.

I guess that is it: they are selling "themselves", while I am more interested in things.

Comments

Dave Davis said…
I'm pleased you had the experience.
I really don't know if this sort of thing would happen more often. I doubt it. But then again, I don't give it a chance.
Ed said…
After reading this posting I feel even more honored that you meet with me and we can walk together and have conversations. I may be misplacing your acceptance of me however - it might be all about Patches, she the gregarious one in this family.
But I am so easy to satisfy! You don't play Ten Questions with me.
John V said…
Every time we hike with you we probably drill you with at least 40-50 questions!
40-50 is OK, as long as they don't include "the Ten".
Sondra said…
I hate when the first words out of someone's mouth is "what do you do?"
I want to say, "what difference does it make, what I do, it's what I'm doing right now that is important to me."
But it DOES make a difference. They want to be sure that they outrank you and have more money than you, so that they can safely look down on you and feel "good about themselves."
Chris said…
Would you please list the "the Ten" just in case I run into you out in the boonies.

Chris
Chris, I already posted about the Ten Questions, some time ago. Shame on me for being a thread hijacker in this comment section.
John V said…
Just think though, if you didn't have a conversation with your camper friend about his guide/hunting vocation and the places he's lived over the years you wouldn't have had the same interesting experience. Maybe some of the ten questions do come in handy every once in a while when you find the right people..
sooperedd said…
I always knew I didn't like the "what do you do?" question, as I mentioned in a response to one of your previous posts; now I know why.
Jim and Gayle said…
kB. I have never run across anyone who fit the motives you assign to people when they might have the temerity to ask what you did for a living and I have met lots of folks. Surely, you are joking?

While I don't care to talk about what I did I have met people who had experiences I never thought about and had fascinating jobs. We are all the sum of our life experiences and work was a large part of that. I don't typically ask that and generally not to start a conversation but, it bothers me not at all when someone asks me.

It seems rather silly to judge someone simply based on the questions they might ask when they meet you. But, hey, we are all entitled to our pet peeves.

Jim
Thanks for the comment. I would rather let the subject of Ten Questions go. It wasn't the theme of the post.
Sondra said…
...but would one open a conversation with say a homeless person or someone we presume to be homeless, by asking "what do you do?" It is thus not relevant, So do we say what have you done? I would say "what do you enjoy doing" is a more appropriate question, it can encompass livelihood and other interests and yet not be connected to an income or class distinction.
Good suggestion, Sondra. I hope I remember it, when the time comes.