Strange

"The meeting of two people is like the meeting of two chemical substances. If anything happens, both are changed." 
~ C. G. Jung

Something strange has happened. I had been receiving emails fairly regularly from C. since he's been at his island "getaway" - now in his second week. But, all of the sudden, I have noticed that he has stopped writing, "Yours, C." or "Y., C."

Of course I noticed it right away the first time it happened! It was like spotting an elephant trying to get into a telephone booth!

So, as I said, it seemed so strange for him to suddenly do such a thing in his most recent correspondences with me. After all, he has been ending his emails to me in just that way, "Yours, C." or "Y., C." ever since the second time he wrote me, so very long ago.

I think a lot (especially in regards to C.!), and viewed it as being something possibly meaningful (in a negative way!) because, I first think of C.'s gift of intelligence, and following close behind, I think of his talent as a poet (and, yes, I do consider him to be extraordinary as a poet!), and it tends to be ingrained in poets to chose and make use of their words carefully. Poets will use a word to get the most meaning out of it, or at times omit a word for the same reason.

So, I am sure that because I do think of C. as a poet, I think of his choice of words having more meaning to them than someone who is not gifted in that realm, and because of that, the omission of the use of a term of endearment that he had been using in his emails, to sign off, since that second time he ever wrote me, so basically, for ALL of these 15 months, that yeah, it did seem strange, and I was unsure of how to take it.

So, I asked him why he hadn't been signing his last couple of emails to me with a, "Yours, C." or "Y., C.?" In my email I wrote, "It seems strange... I am so used to knowing (and loving) that gesture that means so much to me... "

And he wrote me back, "Dear L., You are  reading too much in the tea leaves.  :-) "

So, now I'm just left wondering; having to trust that I don't need to be worrying about it. I mean, we're still writing each other as we always have, talking about everything under the sun, as is our norm!

And actually, because now his time is his own, and he has more of it to spend thinking, we have been talking at length  on philosophy and theology, more about matters of faith and belief systems; about God and how He plays (or does not, play) a role in our lives, etc. 

It's the kind of conversations that I like, and I told him, I hadn't had to use my brain as much as he has made me, since my father died eight years ago! My father had so often challenged my brain!

I told C. I felt like I was thinking at a snails pace (and quite possibly at snails level!). But he has been generous in telling me of his appreciation for my "skills," writing, " You know how to think.  It does not matter whether or not I agree with you. Your very provocative arguments deserve a thoughtful response, and I shall give it as soon as I can think and put thoughts into words." And he did give me his response, which, of course, I have been made to think even more deeply upon!

So, yes, our "verbal tennis," as he calls it, has not only been challenging, but fun for me. Like I have said, it's what I need!