Chivalry Has It's Rewards

I decided to not stay at the casino today and instead moved to Albequerque,NM and parked at the truckstop there. I really wanted a cold beer and since there wasn't an adult beverage establishment nearby I took a walk. I found a bar about a block from the truckstop.

I made friends with the two guys working the bar there and commenced to endulging in a few adult beverages while engaging in discourse with the patrons around me. I have having a pretty enjoyable time for a while. At some point a young lady came in selling indian jewelry. She was showing her wares around and showed them to me. I really liked some of it but explained that I was short of funds and really coldn't afford to make a purchase at the time.

She was very freindly and seemed to understand, and I bought her a drink. After a short time some jerk started insulting her and giving her a hard time. I had imbided in a few by then and took offense at his behavior and quickly stood to her defense. A few words were exchanged but no blows and he apologized to her.

A little time had passed when a couple of guys came in and sat down at the stools beside me. They were obviously indians although they didn't appear to be from the area as they looked more like Navaho than Hopi to me. During our conversation I found that they were in fact Navaho from Arizona.

One of the guys noticed the tattoo on my left upper arm and commented "nice shield, bro". This was a very positive comment for me as most people (white people) take it for a dream catcher instead of the war shield it actually is meant to depict. I thanked him for his comment and he said "that's a powerful shield you have there, where did you get it? Are you native?". He then went into great detail about the meaning and significance of my personal symbol displayed on my arm and how it wards off evil, all of which I was already fully familiar with. That particular tattoo has a lot of meaning for me.

I was then forced to explain that it was my own design, inspired by my grandmother and that my grandmother was Apache and my personal guide was the eagle." I was especially taken aback by the question because I have light brown hair and blue eyes so nobody could mistake me for an indian. But he knew that not all indians look like what people expect indians to look like.

I really appreciated his attitude towards me and explained my heritage which is a combination of Irish, Apache, and Cherokee, in the order of percentage. After my explaination he continued to call me "bro" and we had a very good intelligent conversation about many things including the military service we both shared, the current state of affairs in the country, and life in general. Really nice guy.

It's really nice to be accepted and understood for what one is instead of what someone thinks you should be. While my heritage/genetic makeup is hardly of my own doing, it is very much who I am. I take great pride in both my indian heritage and my Iriish heritage as both are where I personally came from. Without both of them I wouldn't exist today.

Of course, being Irish and Indian it means I drink, but I get pissed about it.

This is the tattoo he commented on. (not a great pic)

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