I’ve met a few unforgettable characters in my lifetime, and one of them describes himself with the word GRUMPY in bold letters on his cap. Grumpy is defined as grouchy, bad tempered, hard to please, irritable and impatient.  
Over the past few years, I’ve gotten to know this self-described grumpy old man and consider him a friend.  
I first encountered him a few years ago sitting at a table on the outside of PJ’s Coffee Shop smoking a cigarette and writing in a notebook. He has become a fixture at the same table almost every morning between 6:30 and 9, smoking and writing in a notebook. We exchange jabs at each other everyday, and I hate to admit that he usually gets the best of me.
After this past Mardi Gras, he greeted me one morning with, “Old man, take off your mask. Mardi Gras is over!”  
Yesterday, I approached him in a serious mood wanting to know him better and asked, “Didn’t you tell me you were in the Army?” “Yea,” he answered, “12 years.” “Didn’t you serve in Vietnam?” I asked. “Yea,” he said, “two years.” With all the sincerity I could muster, I said, “I want to thank you for your service to our country.” He sarcastically said, “If
I knew I would be fighting for people like you, I wouldn’t have gone.”
He then laughed as only Grumpy could.
I then asked him his age, and he said he was 70. “Have you even been married?” I asked.  He replied, “Yea, one time for 22 years. My wife died in 2003, and I still miss her. When you love someone, you miss them when they’re gone.”  
I continued, “You’ve been writing in a notebook every day. What are you writing about?” “I’m writing a book,” he answered. I asked him the name of the book. “Illusion of Reality,” he said and added that it’s about knowing true spiritual knowledge if you choose to do so.
I quickly realized that Grumpy and I certainly were not only on the same page spiritually, but we were not even in the same book!
Am I condemning my friend? No. What makes our relationship special is that we accept each other as we are, and that includes our right to agree to disagree.
Grumpy tries to project an image of being tough, but he has a soft heart. In fact, I’m going to order him a new cap with the word MARSHMALLOW.
If you have any questions or comments, please write to Get High on Life, P.O. Drawer U, Reserve, LA 70084, call 985-652-8477, or email hkeller@comcast.net.