Be Like Nick, Y'all.

Let me tell you about my friend Nick.

Actually, I’m not sure how to label him.

Friend?

Acquaintance?

Sales Rep?

Buddy?

Dude that I know?

None of these quite seems to fit. Or, if they do, they don’t fit all the way.

Whatever the label, we’ve never had a beer together. Or a meal. Or traveled together.

I’ve never been to Nick’s house, and he’s never been to mine.

If I passed his daughter on the street, I probably wouldn’t recognize her. Likely, he wouldn’t recognize Lily or Lu.

The truth is, I don’t really know Nick.

We’re not “friends” in the traditional sense of the word.

Were’re SMF: Social Media Friends.

On the surface, we don’t have a lot in common.

Nick is Christian, I am not.

Nick is a Republican; I am not.

Nick catches little baby fish, and I catch great big fish.

Most of our interactions on Facebook are disagreements, and I have “real life” friends who question how I can tolerate “that dude Nick that’s always commenting on your stuff.”

Two things about that:

1 - I like the other side. I want to hear and understand their perspective. Increasingly, and largely thanks to social media, Americans live in isolated echo chambers. We spend a lot of time in online circles with people who look just like us, walk just like us, talk just like us, and think just like us.

It’s fashionable now to unfriend folks you don’t agree with, but I find that absurd, because we’re all in this together.

2 - Despite what we see online, people are people. And people are often better people than we give them credit for.

Last week, in the Great Monroe Blizzard of 2026, Nick posted some photos of downtown, and I could see he was out on his Gator.

So I texted him.

“You still out on the Gator?”

𝐍𝐨𝐰, 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞, 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲.

“𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤, 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠?”

So Nick’s just gotten back home, probably with his wife. Probably sitting by the fire, maybe changed into warm clothes, and relaxing inside where it’s warm.

And his first and immediate response was an offer of help.

For whatever I might need.

Which happened to be a photo of my house in the snow.

He went back and took it for me.

And then, later, he went back again to take one in the moonlight.

That’s real, y’all.

We may disagree on just about everything, but knowing I was out of town, he was quick to offer help.

At the end of the day, no matter our opinions on politics, religion, fishing, or the latest buzz on social media, we’re both Monrovians, North Carolinians, and Americans, and that’s how we’re supposed to treat each other.

Friendly.

Helpful.

Caring.

We gotta live together, so we may as well get along.

We may as well treat each other well.

We may as well #belikeNick.