Strangers

Original Post: October 19, 2006

How odd is it that you can spend so much time with someone...a lover, a friend, even a family member...then that time comes to an abrupt end--a break-up, a falling-out, a family rift--and you see in them things you had never seen before. You ask yourself: Who ARE you? What the hell happened to you? I mean, this is a person you cherished. You would have laid down your life for them without hesitation. Who you laughed with and cried with and were best with in quiet times...and you felt your most safe with...and then the "after" comes along and they do something so--mean, so hurtful, so out-of-character, or seemingly spiteful or off-the-wall of everything they had claimed to stand for and you question "did I ever know you at all?" Were they just being who they thought you wanted them to be? Not only have they become a stranger, at this point they are that type of stranger that when you encounter them alone on the street, you hold your purse a little tighter and your steps quicken because you get that unease in your mind telling you that this is not a good situation...how did that happen when it seems that mere seconds ago this was the only person in the world who knew who you were with every breath you exhaled?