She talks and talks and talks… Spitting out a torrent of words. Drowning me in noise. Stopping only to catch her breath. Providing me not with a moment of silence to respond. Imprisoning me with her chattering. Praying for the strength to be patient and understanding.
She speaks volumes without uttering a word. She laughs without making a sound. She smiles without moving her lips. She’s a brilliant explosion of peace and love and tranquility.
These opening paragraphs describe not two completely different persons but one and the same person. They describe my good friend Jenny. She is not afflicted with a dual personality. She is simply a complex individual that I have come not just to tolerate but to love beyond measure.
Human beings are very complex creatures. We don’t always act in the way that other people expect us to. I know that when my buddy is yammering away at a hundred miles per hour it’s because she is feeling anxious and nervous.
I don’t even try to keep up with her thread of conversation. I simply wait until she expends all her pent up stress. When she finishes her pointless monologue she thanks me for listening and then she is ready for a meaningful dialogue.
When Jenny is quiet she tends to smile a lot. Sometimes we will watch a video together exchanging many pleasant smiles but precious few words. I know that when she is like this she doesn’t want idle conversation she simply desires cozy companionship. Quiet moments like these are marked not by the ticks of the clock but by understanding glances and reassuring embraces.
Friendship is all about understanding each others moods and making allowances for each others idiosyncrasies. If I told Jenny to shut up when she is in one of her talkative states it would hurt her emotionally and harm our relationship. Putting up with her occasional bouts of verbal barrage is a small price to pay for the customary outpouring of love and peace that she brings into my life.
Jenny is a unique and complex lady with ordinary and simple needs. The need to be loved and understood by her friends. I love her and I understand her. She in turn loves me and understands me and puts up with my quirks. We are imperfect souls who hate being apart and love being together because we love and understand each other so perfectly.
I hope that you will not take the Jenny in your life for granted but be thankful and grateful for her friendship and understanding. Let us forget the faults of our friends and remember only their virtues.
©1998, Robert Paul Reyes
Robert Paul Reyes lives in Alameda, California, and works for an insurance company to support his ‘real’ occupation as a writer. He is a cyber-columnist for the Internet version of the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth, Texas. His personal web page is entitled My Version of the Truth. You can send him email here.