Then and now
then:
- I would have stared at pictures of her all night
- I would have gotten lost in a sea of memories, reminiscence, and self-loathing
- I would have been mean to other people, snapped back, and been snarky
- I would have taken out my pain in a million subtle ways
- I would have ended the night in tears
now:
- I closed the website of the girl who reminded me of her
- I stopped listening to the song that reminded me of her
- I shut off my computer
- I got on my bike
- I pedaled hard and fast, taking my anger out on the bike and the road
- I came home and wrote this
- I ended the night drenched in sweat instead of tears
All I'm waiting for now is the hot chick report and "Boy!! What a night that was....."
This is a lovely poem, thank you for sharing it! I found it to be raw in its honesty, and fully, transparently human. It is certainly something that I can relate to personally, especially many years ago.
"Then and Now" will perhaps resonate with men even more then women (speaking here as a generalization only) given how visual men tend to be in how they connect with their emotions, especially emotions felt in close relationships. All senses can connect with a loved one...the way they smell, a certain color, the sound of their voice....
Interesting to consider that women tend to score a bit higher on Emotional Intelligence tests than men do (again, this is speaking en mass, purely a statistical generalization). It is possible that men are often less objective when dealing with emotional data than women are, and perhaps are able to manage emotions better.
Shifting gears here toward personal, anecdotal observation (as opposed to behavioral science). Have you all noticed that it can take men a lot longer to get over a lost love than it does women? Does it seem to you that men tend to hold tightly onto their emotional past and wax nostalgically about yesterday more than women? I certainly have noticed this! As a man, I hope I am not too far out on a limb here! LOL.
What do you think??