I don’t know what gets into me. I was at this party last night, all new people, and had a bunch of red wine. A roaring fire, and it’s near midnight. The hardcore of the party is still there. I sit down next to a woman I’ve been wondering about, she’s from Australia, one of my interests, and inside of ten minutes we’re arguing. She’s tough, I’m tough, it doesn’t matter. At one point she’s talking a blue streak and I say, Shut up.
I only really survey the damage today. Couldn’t face it last night. My wife says she saw me arguing—guess what, this wasn’t the first time—and I say, “I really think I’m getting over my problem. It’s not happening that much anymore.” And she says, “Of course it isn’t; because we don’t get invited anywhere any more.” Then I feel even worse, of course. I wonder what I can do, send the woman an apologetic note? Go back into therapy? Wear a muzzle?
Then my wife offers me a kind of benediction. She’s smart. She says, “I’ll tell you a secret. I realized this a long time ago. There are endless social groupings. You can burn through one and still get invited to another.”
So I live to fight another day!
