Where you from -

The further we go away from home the more excited we are when we meet someone that comes from the same general area. If we're half the way around the world - we're just excited to see someone from the same country. Now when I make such a comment I don’t just mean our immediate family. I went to New York City on business for a couple of weeks, at a function I ran into a lady that nine years earlier we had graduated from high school together. During that time we hadn’t run in the same circles – as a matter of fact we wouldn’t even said hi unless we had accidentally run into each other in the hall. We never hung out, dated, of for that matter I had never called her or any of her close friends. Not that I wouldn’t have wanted to – she was very nice, it just didn’t happen. Unlike some of the people I graduated with, I at least knew her name and something about her. Despite this lack of history together you would have thought we were best buddies. She was so excited to see me. Her husband was doing his medical internship in New York City and in the midst of that rat race there was someone from home that knew her, her family and where she had become who and what she was. She asked me to sit by her and we talked about home, people and experiences we had in common. I’ve had a number of such experiences during my life – at Disneyland, in a bathroom in Las Vegas. That time it was a man and we didn’t sit by each other. Sometimes you didn’t have to know the other person very well to get excited. I went on a mission for the Mormon Church, one of the first things you do when you met another missionary is to ask them where they were from. Now if they were from a little town that didn’t appear on most maps they usually said the closest town or city that did, then they wouldn’t have to go into some massive discourse of where it was. After meeting one missionary I asked the usual question – he answered the same city I was from. Now being the same age I had no idea who he was, so I know instantly he was from some little farm community and that going to Logan was the highlight of the week. It was a small town a few miles south of town – which meant a different high school; group of friends and at that age a different world. No wonder I didn’t know this guy! Never-the-less when you’re away from home there is an instant bond and excitement. Next we had to play the do you know game – do you know this person or that person, this was to see what else we had in common. We weren’t having much luck – then we hit a the mother-load. He asked if I knew a certain young lady. Not only did I know her, I had been to her house and met her parents. I also knew something else about her. I asked how he knew her? Oh I dated her for a while – really? He quickly added that he had a picture of her in his wallet –Really!! He pulled out his wallet to show me the photo – that was definitely her. Do you have any other pictures in your wallet? No that’s the only one – why do you ask? Well normally missionaries don’t carry pictures of married woman in their wallet! Married - what do you mean she’s married? Are you sure? Well this was a question I knew the answer to. Yes I’m sure – she married my brother just a few months earlier. I guess that makes me pretty sure, I wasn't there but they sent me a bunch of pictures. I think he was more than embarrassed, more like humiliated. But he was still from the same area I was, so over the next few months we became great friends. Some time later, after we were home - and I was his best man at his wedding and after all these years I still consider him a great friend. But every once in a while I ask if he has any pictures of married women in his wallet.