Thursday, October 18, 2007

What's Your "Share"?

I was invited to post the Question of the Day, over on MyLeftWing. This was my offering:

Over a beer the other day, a buddy of mine and I were shooting the shit; I asked him if he was getting any on the side. He laughs, says: "Hey bubba, I ain't had any in so long I didn't even know they moved it. On the side? Ha! Which one?
"But, seriously, bubba, that's changing shortly."

His eyes had lit up. I knew he was gonna tell me, so i didn't ask. And he did:

"Just a little over 9 years ago, a woman came into my life. An amazing woman. Suddenly. For her I felt the most intense emotions of love, and lust, and the greatest affinity mentally, physically, and spiritually that I ever experienced, til then or since. We had the MOST incredible affair.

"But about a year later, that woman left my life. Just like that, it was over. There was a message on my phone one day: "Something terrible has happened and I can't see you again.' It sounded like forever.

"I sent messages. She blocked me. I tried to call, but she ignored the phone. She lived 1000 miles away, and my life was totally chaotic in about a dozen other ways--I was losing a job, my parents were dying, and I was going home to take care of 'em--and there was no way, if she didn't want to, that I could carry it any further. So that was it. Nunca mas!

"But of course, I couldn't forget her. How do you forget someone like that? For a while, I looked for someone like her. And of course there was no one else.

"But back in the back of my mind, I always harbored the faint hope that what there was for us in one another other might find a way to resurface. I thought about her, and I always thought--well, no, hoped--we'd meet again. Sure, it was a pipe-dream, realistically, but you know how that is....

"Until, about 6 weeks ago, pretty much out of the blue, I got an form e-mail from Facebook, inviting me to join her Facebook group. There followed a message, and we exchanged messages, and then phone numbers, and then late one Saturday night, she called.

"We talked until dawn, 3, maybe 4 hours. So long I had to hang up to recharge my calling card. We picked up our conversation just about where we'd left it, 8 years before. There was no awkwardness, no embarassment.

"So the upshot is, she's gonna come see me in December, when her school's over for the semester.
"For a week.
"Or maybe 10 days.
"Then we'll see."

He looked happy. He went on: "I'm over 60, an' mostly I've been lucky in love. At least, I've been lucky enough to be loved by a fair number of damn good women.
"Probably more than my share."
Then he changed the subject.

But that got me thinking, and so, ladies and gentlemen, the Question Of The Day:
What is your "share" of happiness, of love, of passion?
How do you know?
By what index do you measure?

3 comments:

Dirk Gently said...

my share was one.

one sweet, lovely, sexy, smart funny girl that i met in high school.

the nice thing about one is that she was 100% of my share of happiness, love and passion. until we started having children.

four of them.

one day i found out that math isn't as exact as i had always thought. because there were four people who combined made up 100% of my share.

and then one of them was gone, and with her 100% disappeared.

Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...

that's beautifully said, my brother

Anonymous said...

You first, Woody.