“You could be a workaholic ...”

Last night I was talking with Son 1 about my separation from Wife back ... wow, almost six years ago now. (I told her I wanted out in September 2012 and moved out in May 2013.) He confirmed something I had promised Wife back then but at the time she never believed — that the split would be good for her too. More exactly he conceded that she had been a mess until she stopped drinking last year; but with that, he said, her health has turned around, her strength is coming back, and she's a lot happier than she had been living with me.

So it has been a happy ending for everyone. He went on to say, "She's got friends in church now, and you were able to go be a workaholic like you always wanted to be ...."

"A workaholic? Me?"

"Well you weren't involved with Marie back then."

This much is true: I didn't start courting Marie until 2016. But I don't think I was being a workaholic in the interim. Of course, I was involved with Debbie for a year then ... either he's forgotten her or it didn't quite click for him that we were really together. And I was doing other things too ... writing in here a lot when I was trying to emulate Ella Price, going to movies and plays and art exhibits, reading. I went on meditational retreats both with Debbie and on my own, attended (for a while) two sanghas, ... and other stuff, I assume. I don't think it was really workaholism.

But then that tells me that my boys don't know these things about me. Partly I've tried to keep my private life private, by not talking about girlfriends unless I really had to (not that there have been many!). But the other stuff? How much of that do I want to share with them? Maybe I want to think about this ....

Sent from my iPhone