I got an e-mail about this blog. The person wouldn't comment on here, afraid I may say something. The blog, according to her, is depressing. I'm dragging her down. Bumming her out. "I know I'm not your best friend, but if you lost a friend, so what? Get over it. Friends come and go."
I refrained from responding. Friends do come and go when you don't care, but when you keep the gates like I do, any friend leaving is like losing a limb. (And truth be told, I think I can salvage this lost friendship if I'm given a chance.) What I wanted to do with this letter writer was show her how it feels. I wanted to drag her into the gutter and put a cigarette out on her cheek. Instead, I got a phone call from another friend from back East, and I was thrilled.
I was kind of explaining the situation (and I thank her for offering to show up at my place wearing nothing, and if that ever happens I will take full advantage of the situation if the mood strikes me), and she said something along the lines that all this heartache goes away, gets better, and you forget about it and move on.
I begged to differ. It goes away, gets better, but you don't forget.
I compared it to being shot in the face. The bullet catches your lower jaw and just tears it to shreds. Your tongue is a mess. Teeth are gone. You are rushed to the hospital. Surgeons do what they can, and they are pretty amazing, so they've got you back together. Your jaw, however, is wired shut. For the next few weeks you'll have to sip soup through a straw while your wounds heal. You'll have an IV, too, but you've also got that delicious chicken soup. You can't forget that. Once the wounds heal enough, the docs will clip those wires. Now you'll need therapy so you can talk again. That won't be fun. And did they mention the scars? You'll see them everytime you shave.
You don't want to forget that pain. You don't want to be shot in the face again. Yes, you'll get better, but only a fool forgets. Only a fool wants to relive that.
The shit I write here is my therapy. It beats carving up people or burning down banks. It keeps my mind off my mind. I'd be doing it even if nobody was reading, and I don't know how many people actually are. (If the publisher of my poker book puts this blog on its site, I think more will be coming my way, though.) I don't care, however. It's out there. If I can connect with just one person, which I think I have, I'll have done my job.
Not every post is going to be about how AT and T is staffed by morons or how great Voodoo Rhythm Records is. Some are going to be dirty little wounds that quickly grow into infections.
A co-worker, who is also a friend, told me today that I was the luckiest guy. That I always had women at my desk. I told her she was crazy. That I'm not lucky. That women don't swoon over me. In fact, I think most women hate me. I have issues. I'm not a "bad boy" (meaning I don't beat women or think I am the center of the universe), and I think I'm socially awkward. I have never had an easy time meeting women, but the one's I've met have been great. I don't do the dating thing. I try to treat the opposite sex as equals, and I try to be a nice guy. All those things are sexual/romantic/social poison. I don't have all kinds of women at my desk at work, and I don't think I'm a "good catch." I think I've been lucky ... in some cases very lucky. But the losses have been great, and that's hard to deal with.
My luck, as little as there ever was, has run out. I'm broken, bruised, battered and bitter. I'm also tired. I don't care about this anymore. I don't want to care. I have fallen under the spell of apathy when it comes to my life, and that scares me. I'm not boiling animal skulls anymore, or shooting the windows out of cars parked at the bar, but something is brewing ... and that something can't be good.
1 comment:
You know, with how I feel about friendships, and how my great ones have gone on for decades, this one that we have is one I'm definitely not expecting to deflate. You're right in that it can happen, but I think I've shown that I try to keep things going. (Starting to wonder why now with a certain person who wouldn't even go with me to the courthouse after all I've done for her, but to use her word, whatever.)
Any woman that comes up to me at work is usually talking about work. There are rare occasions, but despite my joking around at work, I do actually take the work seriously and don't like to be distracted unless I need that mental break. (It often helps me, when stuck, to turn to something frivolous for ten minutes and come back to the problem at hand with a clear mind.)
I don't see what you and supposedly others see, and hope I never do. I never want to be that comfortable in my skin. I feel all too alien, all too human, all too animal and for all the wrong reasons.
I'm afraid with my opening up some of the shit is starting to slip out. I can feel it in the way people are handling me. Some people, not all, are starting to move beyond concerned and worried and into that other territory. You know the place. It's like they are planning an intervention mentally, but want to wait to see what that next step is.
All I can say is that I think they are right in that it is coming.
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