Ben
Posted By Cherrie Webb on January 16, 2012
Just when I thought it was safe to go back in the water… (well I never really thought it was safe to go back), my best friend, Ben lost his darn mind. Okay, y’all know that I know some of the oddest folks. I’m going to change the names so that the innocent will know exactly who I’m talking about.
So I have this friend, we’ll call “Ben”. He’s alot like me — persnicky, opinionated, downright obstinate– and he despises change. I’m not talking about the kind of change like changing your sheets or painting a room, but major changes that upset a routine. GAWD! That drives me nuts! I mean it drives Ben nuts. And now Ben has met a woman who has turned his world upside down. He is over 50 years old and for the first time in his life, he is really falling in love.
Ben and I are alike in that we are damaged goods. Our pasts though separate, were in so many ways parallel and because of that mutual drama, we relate to each other in ways that so many men and women, couples and good friends could only hope was possible. We have both been tested by fire and survived. I know what it feels like to want to believe in someone else, to feel loved and not dare to hope that it is truly possible. It’s alot to overcome.
I am smiling and laughing while I watch him rearrange his life, upset his applecart for “her”. There is a great deal of resistance. He’s truly set in his ways. But it’s a joy to see him become unhinged. Of course, she has him spoiled rotten. She cooks for him, cleans for him, puts lotion on his ashy feet. She checks to make certain that he is eating well. She counts his calories and measures his portions. (Can you say overnurturing and totally enabling??) Despite his protestations, you can see the gleam of satisfaction in his eye when he speaks of her and her actions.
So Ben is in love perhaps not for the first time in his life, but certainly for the last time in his life. I’ll keep you all posted.
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