This Was Us

 She drove recklessly, trying to outrun the grief of a sideline love.
 It was early summer; she had all four windows down and the music up too loud,
and she pressed her foot
 to the floor
 because she could beat that yellow light,
she knew she could.
 But
a split second before she reached the intersection
that
 steely
avidity
inside her evaporated.
 She braked hard
 and stopped just short of the crosswalk.
There was this impossible second in which
everything was still-- the music, the traffic,
the sun,
all suspended,
the world pausing to draw breath.
And then she glanced to her left.  He was there,
one hand dangling out of the driver-side window,
 the other resting easily on the steering wheel.  She thought she saw perfection.
As he turned his face toward her, the light turned green.
They each pressed a foot
to the floor
reflexively
and their cars rolled forward together, as if these two drivers were suddenly traveling the same course.  But she couldn't see the earnestness in his steel blue eyes.  She blazed through the final hesitation.  He had no choice but to peel off to the left,
out of harm's way,
proceed to a more friendly stretch of road
as she drove recklessly, trying to outrun the grief of a sideline love.

I Measure My Wealth In Lessons Learned

It is only in his work that an artist can find reality and satisfaction, for the actual world is less intense than the world of his invention and consequently his life, without recourse of violent disorder, does not seem very substantial.  The right condition for him is that in which his work is not only convenient, but unavoidable. 

~Tennessee Williams 

It has been a doozy of a week, but as the dust settles I find myself in a pretty good position.  For one thing, I have been given the remarkable opportunity of living in that unavoidable state of artistry that Mr. Williams so perfectly described, and for another, I've discovered that while I might not always know where to find a subjective complement in a sentence, I'm pretty good at that editing thing.  

Above all, my faith has been tested, the weaker seams fortified; I am in good hands.