I think that’s who you really are
Me: You met me at a strange and awful time in my life.
Her: You keep saying that.
Me: In some ways you never met me. Who I actually am. You only ever met me all f____d-up.
Alcoholics Anonymous has a 12-Step program where Step 9 is apologizing to all the people that you’ve wronged.
In some ways, since the 4th of July, I’ve been trying to do something like that.
People that grow up with zero friends seem to fall into two camps: The ones that learn to do ok by themselves or the ones desperate for companionship.
I’m definitely more the former than latter. All the times that I said that I set Alison apart, the obvious question is how did I treat everyone else?
For better or worse, most people I’ve met in life were/are disposable.
There’s something about being social and glib that there’s always another interaction around the way, another new relationship just with a wink and a smile.
I’m better than most at shallow relationships; slightly more than half of the people I dated between 33 and 35 are still on good terms with me.
After Alison died, I went into full pickup mode and met a number of women. A total of zero are friendly with me. Well, one still kinda talks to me.
Don’t remember much of that time except the pain, guilt, and insomnia. Everything hurt. Everything was agony. Women and alcohol were a great salve. But somewhere along the line, I think I was just awful to everyone.
It’s hard to be nice to people when you’re in agony. And I hid it so well that I suppose that people kinda forgot that I was clinging onto life.
It sounds like I’m making excuses for myself and perhaps I am, to an extent, but I’m also just trying to let you know maybe why I was as I was.
I contacted about six people, including my brother and sister-in-law whom I stopped interacting with for various reasons; only my brother and sister-in-law responded.
Well, they responded and so did Mouse. But not the way I’d hoped.
Mouse: No. (shakes head) I think that’s who you really are, Logan.
Location: home, alone with the boy
Mood: thoughtful
Music: I need direction to perfection, no no no no, help me out
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2 replies on “The 9th Step”
[…] Coworker: You know, she really cares about you. Me: The feeling’s mutual. She’s just super mad at me. Justifiably so, to a good extent. Her: She is super mad. You weren’t very nice to her. But I’m still on your side. Me: Why? Her: (shrugging) She said that you made her who she is and I can tell she’s still hoping you’ll be better. If you want to be with her, you have to be nicer to her. Do better, Logan. Me: (nodding) I’m trying. She met me at a weird and awful time. […]
[…] Mouse sees me as this terrible version of myself and I can’t really blame her because – at best – I was a poor imitation of myself, of who I thought I was. At worst, I was exactly who she thought I was. […]