Weightlifting gave me an entirely new group of friends. Among them was a full-blooded Norwegian wrestler and gymnast. He was a blonde-haired, white-skinned, soccer-playing, gymnastic, bitter atheist, from a blonde-haired, physically impressive, gymnastic family.
We lifted roughly the same amounts on almost every exercise, so it made sense for us to become workout partners, since we didn't need to add or remove weights very often when switching between us to do our exercises.
We lifted weights together in high school for 2 years before both ending up at the local college, in Rocketown, which we referred to as the University of Absolute Hell. We continued lifting weights together, and I got to know all about his family along the way, just as he did mine.
Eventually, he bought a weight set and had it all set up in his room, which was the entire downstairs of his family's split-level house. So several nights, if I wasn't in class or at the student center of whatever, I was at his house lifting weights.
He had an older brother and 2 beautiful blonde older sisters. His brother had at his peak been much stronger than either of us were. But he had long since gotten married and had kids, with the resulting loss of muscle-mass and strength that comes with being a full-time father and husband instead of a gym rat. His younger sister was a beautiful girl who looked a lot like Pamela Anderson and who enjoyed a tremendous amount of positive attention from men. She was hot and she liked it. She was also very nice.
His middle sister had frequent fights with him whenever she was home. She had become a feminist, hating men, and made a habit of dating only black men, as one of the foundational beliefs of modern feminism is that white European males (as opposed to white Jewish males) are the source of all evil in the world and must be utterly destroyed. So dating black men is considered an acceptable alternative to lesbianism. If this sounds a lot like Nazi fascism it's because it is.
She was bitter and angry. So was he. They each had their reasons. And they had some big fights. The most common fight I recall would begin with her making some bitter, disparaging remark about men in general. He would respond with something equally insulting. Then she would begin complaining that all the men she dated physically abused her. At this, my workout partner would shout, "that's because you only date damn n-ggers!"
This remark would really hit a nerve. And then the fight would really heat up.
There was a lot of anger in this physically fit household, for various reasons, and sometimes it resulted in your standard family battles. If my own home were any better, or even as good, I would have been there lifting weights instead of at his house. My father had a very large set of weights and plenty of room for lifting them. But I rarely went home.
Now, getting to my workout partner's specific remark. Over time, his sister mellowed, and eventually married a generic white man before moving to Seattle.
Fast forward about 10 years. My former workout partner and I live in different cities. I live in Memphis. He still lives in Rocketown. We keep in touch sporadically via email, mostly just sending jokes to each other, as there is nothing much to say about our daily lives. He races motorcycles. I play soccer.
But one day his emails changed. He began sending out prayer requests and Bible verses. Gradually I learn that he had joined a church, became a Christian, started dating. He was a new man.
Another year or so and I learn that he had married his girlfriend. He is happy, perhaps for the first time ever since I've known him. I'm happy for him. His life is good.
One day he and his wife came to Memphis. He wanted to buy my electric guitar. And he wanted to show her around Memphis.
I worked downtown at the time, so I agreed to meet up with them on Beale Street before heading home to get My Wife. We were supposed to go out to eat together, the four of us. I ran across them in front of B.B. King's. He and his wife were standing there, looking around at the sites of Memphis.
His wife is tall. She is beautiful. She has a nice big, friendly smile on her face. And she is black.
Ain't love funny?
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