“What do you and your spouse or best friend have in common?”
I want to say “love” but it’s so cliche, and the way she loves me is not the same way I love her. It can’t be. We’re individuals. So feelings are out, even though feelings are in, and I have to think of something else. Isn’t that always the way?
She’ll probably tell you that we both grew up in the ’80s but that’s not particularly true as she was a teenager and an adult in the ’80s while I barely hit 13 by the end of that decade. It means that she saw The Breakfast Club when it first came out, and I caught it on some nostalgia channel in the late ’90s. It means she was dyeing her hair purple while I was begging my mom to stop making me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for school.
She’ll probably tell you that we both have a fondness for cheesy movies, and she would be right there. We seem to like those romantic comedies that most other people pan. Or the time travel film where you can totally debunk the method of time travel in seconds. Or movies starring Meg Ryan, even though she hasn’t been in a good one in years.
She’ll probably tell you that we both have a sweet tooth, and she would be right there as well. Give us some cookies and chocolate any time and we can exist on just that for ages. Ice cream doesn’t stay too long in our freezer, and we have been known to snack on things even if we’re not hungry.
She’ll probably tell you many things, and she knows us as well as just about anybody, so I would listen to her, but I’ll tell you what she won’t. We are both writers. No, she has no aspirations at the moment to publish anything. She doesn’t even write all that much. I can’t recall the last time she wrote anything just because, and I write every day. But that doesn’t make her any less a writer.
That’s what first came to my mind when I read the journal prompt, even though it’s been an eternity since we wrote anything together, since she shared anything she wrote with me, but it’s one of the first things I found out about her. That was in the midst of our insane back-and-forth emails at the beginning of our relationship, when we were miles apart but drawn together by our words.
And I am in breathless anticipation for the day she comes to me and says, “Let’s do it again.”
Sam
Sam's Online Journal 