Sunday, October 11, 2015

Things People Say: Beautiful Edition*



I stopped by my friend Craig's house today to check out his xeriscaping (that sounds sort of obscene or personal, but for those of you who live in areas of the world where it rains more than once every four years or so, it's what we do to cope with drought) and also had the pleasure of seeing his friend Tom. You might remember some years back when I wrote about Tom and his husband Ed whose 80th birthday party I had the privilege of attending and providing the cake. Tom and Ed have been together for well over forty years and listening to their stories about growing up gay in the thirties and forties of the last century, as well as being a couple in this one, were sobering, hilarious and fascinating. Both are the dearest and warmest of men, and it's such a privilege to run into either of them, even if was about 110 degrees outside. Today I had Sophie in the car, and when Tom walked up to it, I introduced him to Sophie. He said, Hi, Sophie! and I quickly told him that she wasn't able to talk but that she understood him. Tom said, just as quickly, Well, we have enough talkers on this earth, so that's just fine! 

Then the skies opened up with rain, cleansed my soul, and plumped up my heart so that I jumped out of the car and pledged my eternal troth to Tom for being such a beautiful, inclusive man. Just kidding on the rain part. I would have planted a giant kiss on his lips if my own weren't so damn dry. I did admire Craig's xeriscaping, though, and shed a bit of rain on my own when I drove away. I've said it before, dear Reader: sometimes it IS the small things that can make or break you.










* Things People Say is a device I use throughout my book in progress, but they're generally stories of more outlandish things people say when faced with Sophie's disability. It's been my experience that the sort of comment that Tom made is a rare exception to the rule.

19 comments:

  1. This was just lovely. And Tom sounds just lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really needed to read a "beautiful" edition. Still thinking about what a religious leader told me two weeks ago, in front of my students -- "People in the _______fill in the blank_______ community don't like or respect you." And we wonder why there are so many wars over religion?

    ReplyDelete
  3. it's good to be reminded that as we age we become wiser, and not just older (though I suspect this is a case of wise and kind personality period - disregarding the age)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful words from a beautiful soul.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Most of the older men I encounter here are total ignoramuses. More Toms please.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Moments like this are a gift. And yes, they also open the floodgates sometimes. What a dear man.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Amazing!! It is so relieving when people say the right thing. This story reminded me of telling a high school history teacher about my seizures and explaining that I would stare off to the right several times a day. He responded, "like the rest of the class?" He wasn't afraid to address the issue head on and eventually wrote eloquently about epilepsy in my college recommendation.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am with the others. We need more Toms.

    ReplyDelete
  9. How do you feel about Tom's who spell their names Thom? Drives me nuts. That's just wrong. :P

    This Tom had two things figured out, FO SHO.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...