Learning

Do you believe that we can learn something from everyone we meet? I do. Even those people who we feel are not very compatible with our personality or such, have something to offer that is interesting, intriguing, or important to know. Most of the time I hope to surround myself with people I admire and trust who can teach me how to become a better person and stand firm in who I am. But sometimes, it is also important to recognize people you can't trust or people who are successful but practice things you would never participate in. Why? Because it is important to understand how they justify their behavior, and more importantly, it is good to predict when it might be directed towards you. This is what I think anyway. I'm not really talking about the obvious vices we may stay clear from like drugs or alcoholism, etc. but more subtle nuances of human behavior, something you might refer to as the "politics" of life.
I had dinner tonight with an acquantance (sp?) from work who kind of irritates me at times so I can't spend too much time with her. She is very attention demanding and always has a crisis, and yet, people love to talk to her because she is very bubbly and animated in her communication. Fun. Personally, I can only take that for a little while, but people seem very interested in her and attracted to her. OTherwise, she is very very bright, knows her job well, and I think is a good person overall. So can I learn something from her (I mean socially)? How is it that the same behavior that seems annoying to me (all this drama about things that happen), is so attractive and amusing to strangers we might encounter? She strikes up a conversation with a stranger in no time - and these guys are usually both good looking and well polished. So how does that work? Is it that they are hoping for an easy date, or is it really attractive? And is it the kinds of dramatic stories that she tells that are attractive, or the manner in which she tells them? Of course, it help that she is cute too, so there is a physical attraction as well probably. Well, after a couple of margaritas I can't really say what exactly I learn from all this,but I did have a good time, and I do love thinking about stuff like that. And, I'm glad that we don't go out every day, because too much interaction I couldn't take...