It occurred to me sometime during the last months of Aida's life that, in general, we just don't pay attention to the obvious: That "till Death Do Us Part" means that one of us is going to die before the other one. One of us is going to go first.
Obvious, right? Simple, right? And just unbelievably difficult to understand. To (in a word of the 70s) grok.
Aida and I had the chance to talk about this odd turn more than once and more than once remarked on its essential strangeness. I remember realizing -- and telling her -- that when two people throw in with each other for the long haul it means that one of the two is going to go first; someone is going to make the way for the other.
Somewhere between November and December, it had become painfully clear that all that chatter about the parts "Until Death" and "'till I die" and blahblahblah ... was real. Oh my god.
I guess somewhere deep down I didn't think anyone really meant that part of it. I didn't think we were supposed to actually follow through on the whole "Death" thing. I mean really, what kind of a messed up system is that??
And so, my friends and fellow travelers, the good news may be that you have found a shelter and a home for your heart in the sweet arms of someone unbearably dear to you.
The bad news is that means someone is going to go first.
I think my Aida is crafting a most marvelous map for me; I'm going to need it.
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