Who are you?

Do you know me?

Come on. Think about it. Most of you know a part of me. Maybe you know me as the neighbor as we grew up together, or the guy in high school or college. Maybe you just know me because we work together.

My parents and my wife know the most about me.

Odds are, though, you don't know much about me.

What got me thinking about this was a conversation I was forced to have with someone who thinks he knows me. He told me I'm narrow-minded, bitter, vindictive even (backstabbing, manipulative also came to be spoken). The situation was not casual banter, mind you. This was serious stuff -- the kind of thing that, if handled poorly, destroys my life as I know it and injures my family, perhaps in ways I cannot foresee.

So, how can this person know me?

He has once been in my driveway (and didn't get out of the car!). That's it. That's about as personal as it gets. He's never been in my house.

Does he know the real reason I don't eat meat? Does he know where my family spent our summers as I was growing up and how this impacted my life? Does he know if I have siblings? The classes in school I failed or excelled in? How many needle shots I endured in my finger tips at one point in my youth? My birth defect? Does he know who my friends are? Why I feel a pain when I hear the name "Rufus"? What charity work I do? About the first time I got drunk? What BoozerFest is? Who "Mr. Letchworth" is? The first time I ever threw up in front of people? My friends who have died or killed themselves? What made me cry at my wedding? Why I love my wife so much? My first newspaper job offer and why it was a turning point in my life? Why I chose the college I went to? Who is my college mentor? About the auto crashes I've been in? My faith? Why Juan in the tunnel and I can talk so freely?

You get the point.

You see, I'm not always sure who I am and if I know my real self. I know that, like all people, my soul is divine and shines like 10,000 suns in the blackness of the universe. I know yours does, too.

Thought: To know, know, know him, is to love, love, love him . ... (Does he know why I love oldies and who Rockin' Robin was?)