The Magnet

I wouldn’t say so much that we are now “good friends”. That’s not quite right. It’s more like we’re old war buddies. We survived something. And here we still stand. We’re the tottering ancient dudes in uniform marching in the Memorial Day parade. Seeing his face … God. That face. Beautiful face. A face I love. It’s a visceral response. He is imprinted on my spirit. Forever. Because of what we survived. For a long time – for years -we could barely have anything to do with one another. Even though we tried. It’s that weird thing: you move onto separate paths … but that original connection remains strong. We were drawn to one another originally as though there was a magnet controlling our actions. It was chemistry, plain and simple. It could not be avoided, or rationalized, or ignored in any way. Our connection was inevitable. So … when something like that ends … you have to move on, but the monolithic magnet kind of can’t be destroyed. You have to ignore its signals, and keep walking away from it. For your own good. You just have to decide to put one foot in front of the other … and soon you’ll be walkin’ out the do-o-or … We could never ever be casual, we could never say, “Oh hi … how have you been, old friend?” It was always really rough. Messy. It’s not rough now. We’re past the roughness. We can sit across from one another at the table, and catch up. And laugh, and give updates. And hug each other goodbye, and wish each other well.

But the magnet still exists. It’s like matter : whatever that magnet is, on whatever plane it exists … something like that can’t be destroyed. Ever.