Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Waiting. Room?

I'm here at the cancer center watching mother somehow rest peacefully while poison slithers through her veins. There's a strangely calming silence in a chemotherapy treatment room and many telling smiles are exchanged amongst strangers here. There is no need for explanation... no small talk...no curiosity. We are all here because someone we love has cancer and it really fucking sucks.

In a weird sort of way, it's comforting.

Mom seems to be doing much better than I am. Either she's hiding it well or she isn't half as scared as I am. She's fighting cancer... I'm fighting the urge to cry. "Be strong. Just be strong," I keep telling myself. She can't know I'm afraid. Can't know that life without her hardly seems like a life worth living. She can't know that I'd happily stop everything I'm doing and spend every waking moment getting her through this if I could... because I can't make that happen. But oh, oh, do I want to.

During our time here, I have managed to lure my very selfish cousin up to visit mom, as well as pick a fight with my "boyfriend." I decided it was wrong for him not to be more interested and supportive today, without actually telling him. Then I did tell him (via text) and decided he wasn't responding the way I want him to. Sabotage? Probably. But, mom's treatment is going to go on for at least six months and if he's really in this... really trying to be a part of my life... well... he's going to have to try harder. I tend to think it's a much lonelier feeling to have people in your life (that are supposed to care) fail you, that it might just be easier to literally be alone in the first place. Why wouldn't he offer to be here? I certainly would have and I also wouldn't have been totally focused on "golf weekend." No, I'm not a man, so perhaps I simply can't understand... but when I think of the family I have and the family I want... golf clubs don't come before hard times.

The "boyfriend" initially mentioned we'd see each other Wednesday. I hadn't even had the chance to tell him I had a work event that night. He also said we'd see each other this coming Sunday. But last night, he mentioned he'd be tired on Monday so Tuesday would be better. Really? He doesn't plan on seeing me for nine days? I work full time, and am here with mom during chemo and this unemployed schmuck can't manage to see me for nine days?! HE'S going to be too tired?!

Tempted. I'm tempted to dump him. Maybe he needs room. Maybe I do. Maybe he needs to see what nine days are like without me... maybe without any contact at all. Maybe it's time to move on. Maybe I'm just acting out because I'm scared as hell and I feel like no one can understand or find the right thing to say. Maybe I watched too many movies and expect life to be more than what it truly can... Maybe I'm expecting too much? Or not enough...

1 comment:

Anon said...

You have spent too much time over the last couple three years finding and committing to what is true in you, true in your career, true in your relationships, true in love, to waste time on things or people who don't understand that.

Perhaps this man is true, but he's just naive about the difficulties of life, what it demands of us, and what it demands of a new love. Maybe it's too much for a new love, throwing more intimacy at a fledgling relationship than it can handle. Perhaps you and your mother need your time alone, and you and and any man you might be interested in need your own time together, where he can support you from outside the madness. Or perhaps...he's just not the right one. Period. Only you know this.

I certainly don't think "being alone" is the answer. Everyone, you especially, deserved a soul-mate to share the bad with the good. But not just anybody can fill that place. He must be true.

Keep being true to you, to those you love, to your mother. The right man might be there on the sidelines at first, but he WILL be there. If he's the right man, he will be there BESIDE you, IN it, sooner than later.

Just my two cents...