Off on the wrong foot

It is just amazing what a difference first interactions make to the entire ease and comfort of a relationship. This morning Gunnar skyped me, without warning. For any other co-worker, or former co-worker, this might have surprised me.

I had emailed and called Gunnar a few times while we were trying to secure photo rights to use an image of Íslendingur on the cover of the exhibition catalogue I edited. He was hard to get ahold of and it was hard to get a straight answer from him also. I probably could have been a bit annoyed with him. But instead, I made a special effort, when I was in New York with my sister, to take a series of subway trains from Queens over to where his Viking ship was docked, getting lost several times on the way. My sister and I arrived just as they were starting to escort people off the ship for the night. But I guess Gunnar appreciated my effort in coming, because he immediately handed me a free t-shirt after I introduced myself. Just like that, we became friends. And 15 years later, we still are.

It pays to start things off on the right foot.

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