Month: July 2014

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No Real Best Friends

As a society we tend to use friends like dinnerware. Some are good for parties, while others fit at sit-down dinners. Some are fancy for holidays while others are paper and plastic. And best friends, where have they gone? In a world where everyone is apparently your BFF, does that mean no one is your … Continue reading No Real Best Friends

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This Echo

There is joy In this echo And the silence That comes after So succinct Like gathering rain Searching for land Warm and distant There is laughter In the solitude That descends swift And as delicate As a puff of air Moving sideways To tickle your neck Such a fragile touch There is music On the … Continue reading This Echo

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Domo Obligato: The Gift and the Curse

christmas-present-1080p“You haven’t given me a gift; you’ve given me an obligation.” ~Sheldon Cooper

On December 21st of last year I got a package in the mail from a woman I haven’t spoken to in probably five years. For the first couple of years after we lost contact I sent her a gift for the holiday. I got nothing in return, not even an email with a “Thank You,” so I decided she had moved on. So I moved on. And then out of the blue, a few years later, she sends me a gift. My first thought was, “Damn, now I don’t have time to send her a gift in return.”

Obligations: we have many in this life. We have to pay our bills, to feed ourselves and our children, and to work so that we can afford those first two items. There are so many other obligations inherent in being an adult, but I’ll stop there. Except now I’ve been given one more, out of the blue. Sheldon was right. She hadn’t given me a gift. She had given me an obligation, and it came from completely out of the blue.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I loved her gift. It was very thoughtful, and it reminded me of why we had become friends in the first place. If she had sent it at some random time of year, and if it was just something she liked to do, I would have probably just smiled at it and moved on after sending her a “Thank You” card. But getting it at Christmas-time, and after so long a hiatus, it sat like a lead weight on my soul, begging me to reciprocate even though I didn’t have time left to do so. It gnawed at my brain, though, until I went out and purchased a suitable return gift, tossed in a “belated” card, and sent it off posthaste.

Then I finally exhaled. Continue reading “Domo Obligato: The Gift and the Curse”

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A Firm Hand

firmhand“That’s not even remotely what I meant,” Christian said before turning away. The others were left to wonder what he did mean, even though it had seemed pretty clear to him at the time. None of them were brave enough, though, to open their mouths and ask him that one simple question, so one by one they exited the room. After they were gone Christian finally allowed himself to breathe — deeply in, and shallow out. It was already a tough Monday.

When he inherited his father’s massive real estate business, he hadn’t known he was also getting three of the crankiest vice presidents in the bargain. It was hard to come into work each day knowing they talked behind his back as constantly as the sun shined down from above, but he couldn’t let them win. If there was one thing his father taught him, it was never let others determine your mood. Control every situation, even when you’re not really in control of the situation.

He sat down behind his mahogany desk and was immediately swallowed up by the expectations that sitting there entailed. It was behind this desk that many of the firm’s most lucrative deals were made, what seemed like a dog’s age before he was even born. The desk had welcomed several famously rich individuals throughout its many years, none more memorable than Nelson Rockefeller himself shortly before Watergate. It was a history that Christian had studied intensively as he prepared to take over the reins of the Hand Group.

They put words in his mouth, too, he had finally surmised nearly two months after his father’s untimely death from emphysema in the fall. As winter rolled in for good, Christian realized he had to make a stand or he would be seen as ineffectual, something that would have made his father roll over in his grave. If there was anything Jonathan Hand craved, it was the symbols of power that he wielded with an iron fist until the very day he died. But Christian didn’t have the innate ability to crush others like bugs in order to get what he wanted.

“Your two o’clock appointment is in the lobby,” his assistant, Brian, buzzed him over the intercom. Continue reading “A Firm Hand”

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Weather or Not

I was getting proactive. I swear I was. The clothes had been washed, and instead of tossing them into the dryer I hiked all the way outside to put them on the line. You see, we have a clothesline out in the backyard. It consists of two sturdy posts with a snaking line of rope … Continue reading Weather or Not