The American

He was the typical American. He was the atypical American. Beyond sports, the weather and his dog, he was able to narrate the story of how he journeyed out of the greatest country on Earth into a small town in Germany to learn German. Confident and cocksure, he was a refreshing change from the earlier conversation I had struggled to maintain with the nerdy German lady. Despite our common interests, a chemistry was missing, something despite both our best intentions, punctuated the conversation with awkward silences.

While she excused herself to escape the tedium that was me, he came over and sat at her chair. I mentioned to him that the book that I had bought to the book swap event was a prized catch.

‘The Subtle Art of Not giving a F***’, the black bold and capitalised characters screamed against the bright orange background. The colour accentuated the vulgarity of the title, which was now covered with the yellow sticky notes with the names of the four or five people who wanted to bring it home with them.

“Oh yes, I know the author. I subscribe to his blog”.

So did I. We chatted about author, his provocative and direct style of writing and his well elucidated points. I told him about how his article on relationships had greatly influenced a decision I had made with mine at one point in time. He told me about his favourite article, in which the author presented his ‘F*** Yes” theory.

“What is it about?”, I enquired.

“Oh he talks about how you should only invest in relationships whereby both parties involved are interested in maintaining and growing the relationship. That if only one party is interested, chances are that it would fail and so you should dedicate your time and efforts only to the relationships where the other party tries too”.

Self-evident, but still enlightening, I thought.

“Besides why stick around in a relationship you are not interested in. You already have your family for that”, he clarified, to round off a rather uneventful evening.