“I’m so sorry, Laura.”
I was honestly crying but I don’t know if I was honestly sorry. Maybe I felt guilty. I definitely was.
She had no idea. I shouldn’t have said anything, but I had to. I had to.
“When we started dating –- actually seriously dating, the second time around –- do you remember when I surprised you? You got off work early and found me in your house and I said I was there to make you dinner?”
“Yes,” she said. She was nervous. Of course she was. She had every right to be and she didn’t even know why yet.
“I wasn’t there to make you dinner.”
We had a big fight at her place, in her bedroom, and she stormed off to the bathroom. I was so angry. I didn’t think I’d see her again, so I took something. I didn’t have to tell her what it was, she knew me well enough now. And then two months later we were dating again, and she gave me a key. I had to put it back.
“Forgive me.”
Her face went dark and unreadable. I didn’t know who she was anymore. She didn’t know who I was. And this time when I left, I had nothing.
A while ago I was having an online discussion where I used a quote to help illustrate my point. The quote was this:
“I have found the missing link between animal and civilized man: it is us.”
The quote was not the substance of my argument, but it articulated my thoughts more concisely. When the response came a few hours later, I was surprised to read that my argument wasn’t being disputed, but instead disregarded because of the quote’s author, Konrad Lorenz. His biography includes, among many achievements in medicine, association with the Nazis.
A more recent while ago, I was having a discussion with my girlfriend about quotes. She argued that the context of the quote is important and ultimately inseparable from the quote itself; my argument was that this isn’t necessarily always true. More important than the context of a quote is the meaning to be taken from it. There can be a single sentence of hope in a book of despair, and this shouldn’t disqualify its usefulness, even regardless of the author.
Weeks ago I posted on Twitter, “Even the devil can honestly tell you it’s raining.” What I meant is that if something is true, it doesn’t matter who said it. I personally enjoy a good quote, even if I’m unfamiliar with its author. I won’t often read their biography for the simple reason that I don’t need to know each person that provides me spiritual truth. True, knowing the individual may help understand the quote better, but I don’t think it’s crucial in order to understand the meaning. On a bathroom stall I once read that peace is love, love is peace. I don’t know who wrote it, but I believe it — even if the author was the same who revealed elsewhere on the wall that so-and-so was a bimbo.
Continued…
