Pride. Too Much.
Written Circa 1998

Today I saw two adolescent males get into a disagreement. I did not understand what they were saying, but it started getting pretty heated. Soon enough, both turn apart and stared in opposite directions, faces black as thunder. It was getting seriously awkward.

This I can understand, this I have seen. There was nothing unusual about that.

And then here comes the amazing part:
Barely five minutes passed before one guy tentatively looked at his mate, sheepishly extended a hand and muttered something that probably passed for sorry. Within the next 2.37 seconds, expressions were changed and the tension slowly slipped away; each one seeming not too sure about reconciliation so quickly with the argument so fresh in their minds, but finding the grace to deal with it.

This I have rarely seen. This blew my mind.

I have seen arguments, fights, but how many young men have actually swallowed their pride and made the first step to restoring their friendship? Very few.
More often I see it ending in physical violence, or at the very least they don’t talk to each other for days, weeks, sometimes never again. The male ego is such that being wrong is a weakness. Is it not weaker to lose a friend just because your pride does not let you admit your faults?

These guys were not mushy, soft, poofs who sit around and “validate their feelings” . They were just like you and I, with equal egos, pride and desire for male credibility. They were in many ways the same as every other gangster-wannabe. But their actions showed that they were somehow different, somehow better.
- posted by Tweck @ 9:14 AM