No Winning For Losing
There was an interesting (and extraordinarily) painful discussion this evening. Short, not sweet. It came from nowhere, swept through the core of me, and whisked itself away, taking a significant part of me with it. A part that I couldn't afford to lose.
The conversation went something like this:
HIM: So does that mean you're going to start [vulgar description of a heterosex act].
ME: Maybe I should think about women. At least they act like grown-ups.
HIM: Well, aren't you just above everyone else.
ME: No, I'm outside of everyone else.
It was a sucker-punch on his part, because he knew the things I have suffered because of lover and friends. Betrayal. Lies. Selfishness. A best friend whose selfish and petty actions destroyed a years-long friendship in a matter of moments as if he planned it from the start. And for what? A meaningless titillation and something he absolutely knew would be dangerously hurtful to me. And of course, the expected response to being confronted? Lies.
But at least he got some affirmation of his sexual attractiveness from a much younger man. And the crew behind him, the rest of the gang moving slowly enough and in small enough steps to push me out of the main because my directness often threatened, my disagreement with the status quo of a hirsute ghetto often disrupted the safe, incestuous bubble of contentedness and-we-can't-have-that-can-we? Offers of comfort that felt more self-serving than selfless (we can't have around someone who reminds us of the world of pain outside those doors of this vault).
But the aftermath of the conversation continues to erode my state of mind, diminishing those thoughts that had any lilt to them. There happened to be very little pain today—a lovely change of pace—but this lack of sunny-side thoughts threatens whatever got me to this detente between self and body. Still threatens.
So no, I don't feel above any of these people, I feel estranged, am estranged. And for a bunch of people who still mainly act like 15-yr-olds (comic books, video games, treating others as disposable sexual objects while expecting others to respect their own relationships, dances, almost cruel attention to detail in, of all things, dance remixes!), I'm just old. Death of a loved one never stole the joy out of my life, but it did leave my eyes permanently open and leave me utterly unable to ignore consequences. Of anything.
And, at least relative to those people, I am alone.
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Honey,
You aren't alone. Having made some radical decisions that basically means I am "different" than most of the gay men I see, I can tell you that there are others out there of quality and substance. Sometimes it's just painful waiting to find your way across their path. I often remind myself of the quality people in my life, and that helps me remember that I am on the right path. Leave behind what needs to be left behind, and live well. After all that's the best revenge yet.
Oh, Vincey, you know that you are always on my right path!
It's just painful to be shot at such that I was forced to change paths.
I'm lucky that "away from all that" is my right path now.
People like you are a blessing in this world.
It's sad really that when one person feels that someone elses thoughts and feelings are so far from their own that they can't reconcile them with how they themselves feel, that they assume that the other must be wrong. It's a very close minded and selfish way of thinking really. It's when we realize that others have different ways of thinking and feeling that we truly are able to experience life to its fullest. Through the varying understanding and experiences of others, do we truly realize that there is something more out there than just ourselves and when you realize that, one can stop being mired in the depths of self pity and self deception that has bogged them down for so many years. Yes, lies, deception, betrayal, they are very hurtful, but it is through the understanding and learning from them that we grow and experience life. How boring would life be if everything were perfect everyday. Into everyones life a little rain must fall, for with out the rain, nothing would live and grow.
Listen, kid. You're not alone, you've just got a busted picker. That is to say you've been surrounding yourself with the wrong people, but that doesn't negate the fact that the right people are out there.
Alone? No.
Farther from good people than you'd like to be? Prolly.