My Earliest Memory of True Friendship - King Shane

The voice behind me spoke out:
"What's wrong young blood? Is your bike broke?"
I answered: "Yeah just like my life".
He said: "You know there are two sides to that"?
I replied: ."Oh yeah? Well I'm on the wrong side no matter what".

It must of been my negative attiude that ended the conversation that day. That was also the first time I really felt like someone gave a darn. I was puzzled by this man. That little talking to that day made me very intrested in him. It seemed like everytime I saw him I would smile, and wonder what he meant by "the other side" but didn't have enough courage to ask. I was the furthest from reality I had ever been and I probaly would have ended up back on "the other side" anyways.

So, with small conversation and lots of laughter we began a friendship, and with careful study of this individual, some of my questions became answered without asking. Do you think he knew I was seeking the knowledge it would take to be a happy person that always wore a smile and spoke the greatest greetings I've ever heard? Of course he did. His witty ways and awesome vocabulary force me to make a project out of him. One of the first things I figured out was to smile and kill them with kindness. As time went on I was exposed to a lot of reality, there were lots of lessons in life we talked about.

But, he always spoke in riddles, and never gave the answer right to me. Man, did that really complicate things sometimes! I used to say to myself -
"why does he keep me hanging on like this this? Its B.S."
It wasn't "B.S." at all. He knew exactly what he was doing, he was making me do something for myself. He must of thought I needed work in that department.

As a matter of fact this guy could see right through me. He knows what I want, I know what I want - but he wants me to earn it. The second lesson I learned was that I do have patience - by learning that I now also hold the power of focusing and controling my emotions. He was my fearless leader. He would not back down or give in. My determination to out smart him in a question and just get the anwser would make him laugh.
"Not so fast young blood, time is of the essence and patience is a virtue".

Half-way understanding those proverbs due to my age, there in my head popped a good idea. I won't have to ask him what these words mean -(essence/virtue) as I'll look them up in the dictionary. As I reached for the dictionary, he got me... he got me again. I experienced an invisible lesson that we never discussed before, to seek is to know. This lesson put an end to my wondering why he never gave me the answer. I gathered that to hear is to forget, and to know is to possess the power of that knowledge. "Well done!" I said to myself.

Man, this guy is something else, by this time he had my full attention. I made sure I was always made sure I was on my best behavior when I was in the same room with him, indirectly letting him know that I wasn't wasting his time when talked. But that didn't work either, he would hear through the grapevine of my actions. When my actions were good, I was proud to let him know. When they were bad, I was ashamed and wasn't much for conversation. Still he never judged me and always respected me no matter what the situation.
I said to myself "lesson # 3: don't dwell on the past."

Once I studied this method, my anger level started to decrese tons, but I couldn't always remember to use what I learned. Everybody says practice makes perfect, but that wasn't the case with me - I was a real knuckelhead. The fact that I brought myself up makes me very hard to convince sometimes. But his witty smile made me relize that there is so much more to it.
".....someday ..someday" he said "i'm not going to tell you it will be easy ...but i will tell you it is only as hard as you make it"

BAM! Another lesson learned - All my pain was self inflicted. To think I would fight at the drop of a hat if someone disrespected me. I completely disrespected myself. On my way to recognizing that, i didn't have a clue about anything.

Again, at the bar, I over heard a conversation that struck my interest about a group that only "stand up dudes" could join . It sounded pretty cool and I didn't interrupt at this time. I was using one of my lessons to my advantage: learn to listen and listen to learn. Again, no details. Now I'm going to use my "seeking" ability.

I tried to listen more and started to day-dream what it would be like to have a whole little village of these stand up guys walking around getting along. That was funny - a bunch of little SRETOOH running around - man i laughed! These guys were two feet tall with their attica wraps, smoking homemade cigarette's, smiling and talking the good talk. Then I think I was caught eavesdropping but was just given a look, so i backed off.

Then one day I really needed to ask him a question, and our friendship picked up again. He told me he was "sorry to hear about your father". He also said "this is a time in a man's life where he has to be strong enough for everybody, just take it as it comes." That made stuff so much easier to handle that day. I was convinced that this guy new everything.

That when I learned that I need to put all my senses together so I didn't become the others. One of the first lessons before any of this was "be careful what you wish for".That was something I should have paid more attenion to, because I managed to hit every branch in that wishing tree on the way down. I'm telling myself DON'T wish your way into anything you can't wish your way out of.

It's all possible - it is us that makes it impossible - in fact, this is a lesson never completely learned by anyone, you just need to remind yourself of it. That's what I learned anyway.

The next step for me was to stand up straight after a few minutes of thought . I started thinking - i am standing up straight . I just wasn't smiling. I could here his voice in my head "patience youngblood". Man, this guy's timing was impectable. By remaining semi in-control, i stood strong and tried to figure out where the hell am i gonna find a smile at this hour. That's how i learned that i wasn't being straight up with myself, and I made that a rule from that day on to smile .

I also learned it makes people wonder what your thinking and that is fun it can go either way but one thig is for sure the conversation doesn't start out on a negative point. That's how you catch the smiles and become someone that's interesting to talk to.

These are all good lessons that I learned believe me. It helped me from handing one out a time or two which helped me save face. Back to being straight up, I opened a buisiness called "on the level" that was a for sure reminder to do the right thing.

I only later learned the name of the "secret society". I tried to ask around about this secret society and I only heard negative stuff. I knew that it was BS, as there is no way my friend is invovled in what they were talking about. So one day I asked a good friend of mine, who I believe is a Mason too .
"is there any information available out there" ? He told me there is printed material, but i can't give you any direction. Sorry man, that just the way it is. Well, all my lessons came into play. Instead of asking questions all the time. I stood up and went to Barnes-Noble, after the information i was seeking.

When I finally came to my friend with the right questions it was then I was taken seriously. Right away he made notice of my struggle by letting me know that I've come a long way. That felt really good right up until i heard him say "you've only just begun". We talked about the things I asked, again he never gave up anything extra, only what i asked. This guy is sharp as a tack. Wev'e talked a little sense then we have some plans.I can't tell anyone what they are. This guy has no idea that any of this was going on in my head, or did he? I trust him, as he's been a really good friend and some day he'll make a great brother to me.