Tuesday, December 14, 2021

How Not to Attract a Soul Mate


 So,
What do I have to offer?
Well,
Before I get into that,
A little history...
Historically,
I tend to fall for
Women who are drowning...
Metaphorically, of course...
Emotionally, psychologically, financially,
And et cetera...
People who are
Crying out for help, basically...
So, I help...
I listen to their life story
Of woe and of heartbreak...
I feel for their plight...
And, stupidly, I fall in love...
Those are the steps...
These are the kinds of people
That I have really committed to...
And 
It 
Has 
Never 
Ended 
Well...
Mostly, because they 
No longer believed in love...
Hard knock life, and all that...
And I was thinking 
I was just the "hero"
To prove them wrong...
Wrong!
Fuck that...
Romantically,
I don't have much left to give...
It didn't start off that way...
17 year old virgin me
Wanted to be the marrying type...
Love interests had to be
"The one"...
It had to be poetic,
And devoted...
All the stars had to align
As if the joining
Were foretold by bronze age mystics...
Soul Mates...
But...
That never worked out...
Mostly because of the things mentioned 
Earlier in this missive...
I was unaware of that connection for years...
Decades, actually...
I've broken some hearts,
I can own it,
And 
I've gotten my heart broken
To varying degrees
Innumerable times...
Right about now,
I'm pretty numb in that area...
Commitment,
Romantically speaking,
Has become a nasty word...
It needs faith and trust 
To be able to function...
And,
Again, 
Romantically speaking,
I'm pretty low on faith and trust...
So, what do I have to offer?
All I have left to offer
Is sexual attention, 
Good conversation,
Or friendship...
(Or any combination
Of the aforementioned things...)
I'm no longer
Looking for any strings...
I won't be 
Swearing myself
To any one person
"Till death do us part"
Any time soon...
I won't be "going steady"...
Besides,
My friendships with women
Have always been stronger
Than my "committed" relationships...
Friends rarely try or want to change me...
Girlfriends and wives?
Every. 
Damn. 
Time.
So, yeah,
Don't expect romantic, exclusive
Commitment 
From this jaded soul...
Doesn't mean I can't have fun, though...
Doesn't mean I have to be
Miserable and celibate, either...
Life is a cornucopia of new experiences
To be added to my future memories
Of the now...
I'm taking that task
Very seriously...
So, what do I have to offer?
Whatever this thing is
That I have become.
(That may have sounded a bit
Morbid or morose,
"ThInG tHaT I hAvE bEcOmE"...
Tone is tricky without visual cues
And facial expressions...
I actually like this thing I am...
For the most part...
So it's cool...)
Regardless,
All I have to offer 
Is myself...
Or, rather, my presence...
I'm keeping my heart
For a hot minute...
And I'll give appropriate
Portions of my soul, even,
But only portions...
No one person needs the whole damn thing...
And that's where we're at
In the story so far...

Friday, December 10, 2021

Is This Growth?


Just a few days more than a year ago,
12/06/20, 
I started the week off living 
In a $25 a night motel room in G-town, TX...
King of the Road...
One year anniversary of the end of my last relationship... 
Just in time for the "holidays"... 
Bittersweet, 
But I'm glad to be out of that mess... 
Our respective dysfunctions
Didn't "work"...
Not together...
Life is still interesting, 
but more peaceful...
It's strange being alone, 
but not feeling loneliness. 
I think I rather enjoy it... 
Is this growth? 
I should be thankful for the opportunity 
To learn and to grow that she gave me... 
The experience led me here, 
To myself...
I hope that on some level
Our shared "experience"
Can help her do the same
For herself...
Two people
Who genuinely were trying
Each in their own way
To deal with 
Over-reactive limbic systems
While attempting to maintain
A "stable" committed relationship...
Two very different
Psychological profiles
Despite superficially similar
Relationship histories...
Me, the people pleaser, co-dependent, yes man, 
Problem fixer, mother's little helper...
Seeking validation through
Pragmatic deeds....
Support...
Financial and emotional...
Not always comfortable 
With raw exposition of emotions
Outside of writing...
Hiding in my mind
When things get dicey...
Somewhat dissociative under stress...
Her, pathologically unable
To accept herself
As a valid human being...
Pathologically unable to accept,
With object permanence,
That she could be loved...
Consequently,
Relatively impossible to please...
Emotionally reactive enough
To feel like home...
Like lying face down on the
Kitchen floor
Because some angry drunk
Is waving around a shotgun
From your grandmother's porch...
Yeah,
Adrenaline like that...
We've always produced colorful memories...
Home sweet home...
So...
Anyways...
I had to confront that thing
About myself
A bit more strenuously 
Than I have in the past...
I mean, I do love my family,
Most of them,
But
We are 
generations of dysfunction...
Just like everyone else...
Functional dysfunction, 
Nobody's perfect...
We get things done...
We are capable of growth...
And this woman,
She felt like family
In that fashion...
Down to how she related to her own family...
Home...
Familiarity...
Cyclic crises...
It's always something...
I've grown too comfortable
With feeling uncomfortable...
Most at ease
When I am not at ease...
That feeling that
When things are going well,
There is a timer ticking...
Our relationship
Reinforced that particular anxiety...
Emotions can shift
In an instant...
Angel or monster?
Demon or saint?
What is waiting at home for me tonight?
Yeah,
Really had to confront that one, too...
The therapy helped...
Highly recommended...
Gave me some tools I still use
Out here on my own...
I'm allowing myself to "feel..."
Creating that space...
It's new...
Can't run from yourself forever,
I confess...
And it's the holidays again
This full year later...
Writing this one
Because I'm pretty much over 
Feeling angry...
Or sad...
Or hurt...
(I held onto that last one
For a minute...)
Everything is square...
Financially and emotionally...
We're square...
And I am thankful for the opportunity 
She gave me
To really examine
Why I do the things that I do...
Choose the people that I choose...
It was a challenge...
Damn near broke me...
But
I'm doing alright.
I actually hope she's doing so, as well...

Colosseum

There's a school of thought Concerning our ultimate end Positing that we don't experience our own death... That there are branching ...