Wicked guy, wise guy

First glimpse. A week ago, in Rome, after the birthday party of Peter C –a wise PhD from Sheffield, 65, a very ironic man indeed-. Dinner had been fabulous, plenty of pasta and fish as it could be in Italy: primo piatti, secondo piatti, contorni, and of course this strange mix of white and red wine that trattorias may offer your. The waiter was quite similar to Stanley Tucci, and somehow we felt very much like in the “Big Night” movie. Good times eventually need an end, and there were we saying goodbyes on the corner of the restaurant, each one staring at the other, reckoning how many years it would pass till the next conference. I shaked Peter´s hand, the man on his forties patronizing the man on his sixties, and said to him “Peter, be good”. He immediately would snarled: “what for?”. Turn around, and began walking towards Termini.

A week after that, back in Buenos Aires. There´s some business with people in three continentes and usually we meet over the Skype. In any case, these people -no matter sex, race or religion- would tremble and burst in tears about this guy controlling the whole operation. Let´s call him T. –for I don´t even dare to type his name-. What`s more strange: even the customers of this guy would panick about his opinions while we approach monthly report deadlines or committees. I don´t know T. personally, eventually I will, but in the meantime I come to think that being a wicked guy was a wise way of improving a career. In spite of all that "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" so biblic we´ve deeply learned, somehow, this guy is driving mad a bunch of people. And I´m not sure the business is improving at the same rate as hate.

So when I eventually would meet T, I expect myself to avoid this fear I sense in the other people. I´d be curious about if he is really mean or if he is only pretending to be; I´ll aproach the court with the work done. But I do have this stupid side -which I am proud of, this insane side of me that turns Arian fonts in Trebuchet fonts, this stupid rage about gesturing while audioconferencing- where I really expect T. to appear disguised as Darth Vader, turning lights off, and asking for my immediate surrender.In this very moment of trial, I will understand a couple of facts about Life, and maybe I´d ask to be part of the Dark Side as well.