We speak the same language

Sometimes you run across someone and you just click. You may or may not be friends. You may or may not wind up being friends. But you speak the same language.

Sheila has a good post up and mentioned it kind of off handedly, but it clicked something with me. I've done this a few times. In the Army, in journalism, and in general everyday life. Something happens, you comment and someone picks up on your vibe. Or vice versa.

One of the best examples for me:

I consider myself a Christian, but I'm a church-a-phobe. I don't get spiritual feelings at most churches. Perhaps I'm just too self-conscious or something. Anyway, going to church bothers me. So I don't go. Most of the time.

My wife attends church regularly and she's LDS. Thier church is run fundamentally different from the way the churches I grew up in were. So, the couple of times I did go to church with her, I was very uncomfortable. I wasn't used to the way things were run and I didn't know anybody there.

Anyway, between a section of church, I overheard a couple of guys talking and overheard "Joe Satriani." At which point I made an about face and kind of butted in to the conversation. "Did you just say Joe Satriani ...?"

And it went from there. Turns out the guy lived only a few houses over from me and played guitar, which got us off on guitar talk -- near and dear to my heart. We wound up in a band together. It's amazing how speaking the same language works out.

Conversely, there are people you work for or work with who you never click with. You perform the same or similar missions, but you just can't seem to speak the same way. Be it a difference of gender, age, race or religious belief, there's something substantive that doesn't make you comfortable speaking about some things in a certain way.

Odd that, huh?