My friend S mentioned a few days ago that spending time with her parents is like watching a tragi-comedy unfold. She is at their home trying resolve some serious and long-neglected health conditions that have rendered her father almost immobile. She experienced some guilt over her reaction to their way of communicating with each other. The parents have been in a love-less marriage for as long as S remembers. They are deeply incompatible but managed to raise a couple of kids and build a family together - each contributing equally. When they were younger, S recalls loud arguments, her mother crying because she felt completely unheard and misunderstood. Her father would rage and sulk by turn for similar reasons. Nothing ever changed for the better. The two kids learned to isolate themselves from the chaos and take care of each other while their parents returned to whatever normalcy was attainable in this family. As time passed, both the frequency and intensity of these events reduced...
Heartcrossings
crossings as in traversals, contradictions, counterpoints of the heart though often not..