Sweet Million

October 5, 2010
A few weeks ago I made friends with a bartender at a slow cocktail bar in a bowling alley. He mixed me a great martini and we chatted about school, careers, psychology. This led to a chat about our alcoholic fathers, our siblings – his sister is starting up a clinic for kids like my brother. We chatted about the work I was doing, the book I was writing, the trip I was taking.

I ran into him again tonight and we began the same chat until I used one different word. The “I “of my adventures became a “we” and the addition of one person somehow made his gaze unnecessary – to him solely of course. Funny how after adding one to “I” to create “we”, I am left alone – somehow the plurality of self can be the least welcoming and therefore the loneliest math. There was no untruth to “I”. There is greater truth in “we”.

I wrote a how-to article on the year long care of poinsettia plants, which need fourteen hours of cool darkness for seven weeks in order to bloom its bright red flowers. This somehow proves the theory that children spend much more time at home; grow closer to their parents, just before growing up and changing measurable amount. Perhaps we all need darkness, and cool, to flower.