We did have one thing - and only one thing - in common during our childhood, and oddly that centered around 'size', too. Samson was always much taller and heavier than other boys his same age when he was growing up. This was exactly the opposite of my own experience. I couldn't help wondering if his parents may have had the same perverted sense of humor (or crystal ball perhaps) that I imagined my own did when Sam's parents somehow selected his own first name as well. His Dad was a well-known heavy-weight professional wrestler, and it appears that he got at least some of his fundamental genetics for size anyway right from his old man. Sam was just a very big boy growing up and was commonly mistaken to be in a more advanced grade level than he actually was. No doubt that assumption contributed to his academic problems too, as Sam was naturally always perceived by teachers as being much older than he actually was. Another obvious contrast between us was that I was, for the most part, uncomfortable in my own skin usually, whereas Sam had always been more than O.K. with exactly who he was. He told me once that other kids always teased him unmercifully. I could relate to that part of his background anyway. For what I've pieced together, his dad was actually instrumental in helping Sam make a healthy adjustment and helped him see at still a young age that there was nothing that was ever going to make him a average-sized kid, and getting angry wasn't going to change that. So Sam learned well the concept of acceptance and tolerance early on, a lesson many of us actually could still stand to learn. Moreover he accepted both his physical gifts as well as his definite limitations with an ease and nonchalance - even with a certain grace - which even today is still a marvel for me to behold.

Sam was exposed to weights and physical training at a very early age. His Dad worked out both vigorously and regularly - an occupational necessity in his father's particular line of work. Sam was at 'the iron game'- and seriously too, I've gathered- by the time he was probably 7 or 8 years old. Moreover, his father was genuinely proud of his son's capabilities, and enthusiastically encouraged and supported Sam's interest in 'heavy metal'. Sam's also told me that they used to lift together- father and son. Sam's physical abilities have always been nothing short of astounding. By the time he was in junior high school, he told me that his physique was already becoming very 'unusual'. Where I had always struggled with accepting my own particular brand of freakiness, Sam absolutely thrived on being a really big guy.

"I couldn't get smaller so I decided to get bigger!"

Nature positioned him to make the absolute most out of his great physical assets - more than you could even imagine, in fact. You see, Sam genuinely believes that he had something incredibly special given to him by God, too. According to him, the miracle really started happening when he hit puberty. His bones grew into an extraordinary large skeletal framework; one that was just perfectly constructed to support huge masses of muscle. You see, size has always mattered very much to him. Lifting was what he naturally excelled at and was absolutely compelled to do by his spirit too. To his real credit, Sam has never wasted the incredible physical gifts given to him. If you met him today and asked him what he does, I fairly certain that he would never answer that he worked as a personal trainer or coached at a college, which he did as well. He'd probably just answer simply, "I lift weights..."

You'd also immediately notice if you got to know Sam personally that his most significant limitation is his 'brains' or I should honestly say, lack thereof. He just wasn't blessed at all in that department to begin with, and his family's situation growing up probably only compounded the problem. Sam's not retarded, but he is nevertheless somewhat slow. I've since gotten used to describing him as "just a simple guy" - a VERY simple, basic guy - perhaps even the simplest of guys. His family was always moving around due to the demands of having a dad who was in the wrestling game. Sam's schooling suffered accordingly. He never graduated from high school and to this day has never even thought about getting his G.E.D. Frankly, he may not even know what G.E.D. stands for.

The truth is that Sam does only three basic things in life: (1) Eating - he eats just enormous quantities of food, enough easily for three grown men. (2) he moves extraordinarily large masses of iron around so effortlessly it takes my breath away literally, and; (3) is having Sex (and that, just about whenever he's not doing either of the other two).

OK. So Sam will never win the Nobel Prize, I know. But I also know that I'll never meet a more honest and straightforward guy in this lifetime. What you see is definitely what you get and he clearly knows who he is and, more importantly, who he is not. He's got a real humility too that is just incredibly rare to find in almost anyone these days. And it's worth noting as well that I've never seen Sam flaunt his unbelievable body either. He never wears muscle shirts, preferring his old beat up flannels or just an XXXXXXXXL sweatshirt. He simply doesn't have to. Whatever he happens to wear cannot hide or camouflage what's underneath. The particularly bold shapes and sweeping contours of his body are so unlike any 'normal' man's.

Sam's also frankly incapable of lying. He just isn't that complicated a person, or at all devious. I would increasingly come to admire his almost child-like straightforwardness. Lying and deceit take a certain mental capacity and a desire to manipulate others, as well as the ability to look into the future to plot 'alternatives' and 'scenarios'. Sam lives only for the moment he is in, and he can actually be no other way. He's simply not that deep. To be so would just give him a headache.

He holds no grudges and bears no one any ill will at all. I've only seen him get genuinely mad a few times in fact, and once he's vented it out, he's right back to his old self again and probably even forgot the circumstances entirely by the next day. Lucky for those poor souls who might otherwise have gotten on his bad side. He's very physically formidable - an absolutely gigantic mountain of a man who could certainly be completely intimidating, if that was in his nature. I came to understand that many people avoided him simply because of his freaky size and physique. He unintentionally scared most people away. Despite his having a really pleasant personality, he had almost no real friends except a few close 'lifting buds' at his gym and the college. He never complained about it though, and seemed to take life exactly on it's own terms. If he was lifting, he was happy; therefore, Sam was always happy.

I remember him once saying to me, "I really know I'm just dumb, Pete - but I can lift really big weights..."

And so he is - and so he does- and does he EVER. Sam was just born to hoist unimaginable masses of iron skyward. (He does a few other things very well too, by the way, which I'll get to later.)

Even more amazingly, he has absolutely no qualms about his sexuality, and I doubt he ever had for that matter. It's as totally natural a thing to him as is his amazing physique. There has never been anything to even question, in his own mind. He does as he pleases and knows exactly what he likes. Sam would never think of apologizing for or even being at all embarrassed about his sexual likes and choices. If it 'feels good', that's all that matters to him, and he's always been right up front about what really turns him on - and that is 'size'. Size matters to Sam. There's no such concept of 'too big' in his book. With Sam, bigger is simply and definitely better. So you see, in at least one specific area we are, I guess, in total and perpetual agreement. We're both strongly attracted to really big guys actually. It's only our individual ideas of where 'bigness' counts that really differs. Sam is a real aficionado of big meat. He's a 'meat freak' through and through, and totally infatuated by the really big ones, almost to the point of a kind of fetish-like worship actually. Hey - lucky me! This 'big one' had no intention of ever getting away! •