Lear

You know how it is when you love someone and want the best for them but don't see it coming? So you say something in order to help them, but what you say doesn't help, is misconstrued or angers them when you meant it to soothe?

I said a thing like that last night.

John told me a secret of major life-changing proportion. I thought he was asking me for advice, so I told him what I'd do if I were him in a similar situation. His exact words were, "you don't really understand, you think you do but you don't, you only understand 1% of the situation."

We were drinking red wine at a hotel in Santa Monica, old friends who hadn't seen each other in a while. It was late, the hotel bar was about to close.

"I'll never speak of it again," I said.

John changed the subject, talking about a woman he was dating. He liked her, liked the sex especially, but would never marry her. "I could never just stay with one woman," he said.

I think this is sad, I think he's lonely, I
worry about my good friend not having a partner as he advances through life, so I said so.

"If I had a partner," he said, "I wouldn't be able to have all the beautiful women I've had and will have," a kind if logic that leaves me speechless.