Maura @ home > Jeff @ home [handwritten and sent via snail-mail]
February 27, 2005
Dear Jeff,
Here goes, attempt #3. Let’s hope it has more success than #1 & #2.
My first attempt was ready until I read your message of February 20th – you’re just so sure that you have all the answers! That option 3 existed did not seem to matter – it was clear to you that either interpretation #1 was true – in which case I was sarcastic, but you didn’t really believe that, did you?; or #2, the favorite, which you liked very much indeed. It (#2) gave you such satistfaction that you were driven to send this very mixed-signals message, wherein you seemed to say, “See! I told you so!” and at the same time, “But just because I am right doesn’t mean you should be offended.”
Well I was not offended, exactly. A description of the response this evoked would be closer to the despair which I’ve vowed to fight against, but which your attitudes and still obvious (albeit thinly veiled) hostility drive me toward with bruising regularity.
This situation cannot continue – I agree completely with this statement. However, before I brave the lion’s den, I feel that I must at least have a clue as to what it is I am walking into.
That there is something “going on” viz-a-vis my guilt – or your perception of my guilt – was indicated quite literally in your message of 2/14/05 “Olive branch”.
The paragraph begins, “The anger was levelled….” , but the comment I refer to is in the next sentence, “My despair at the situation with which I am faced was not totally caused by you…” and your next para. , “…and yours that you bear none…”
Of what, may I ask, do you speak? What did I do – or not do – that has caused you such grief? Were I to know that small but most definitely vital bit of information, I could perhaps be a more worthy dialogist.
The answer to that question, I feel, is the key. I am very anxious to hear what it is.
Sincerely,
Maura
February 27, 2005
Dear Jeff,
Here goes, attempt #3. Let’s hope it has more success than #1 & #2.
My first attempt was ready until I read your message of February 20th – you’re just so sure that you have all the answers! That option 3 existed did not seem to matter – it was clear to you that either interpretation #1 was true – in which case I was sarcastic, but you didn’t really believe that, did you?; or #2, the favorite, which you liked very much indeed. It (#2) gave you such satistfaction that you were driven to send this very mixed-signals message, wherein you seemed to say, “See! I told you so!” and at the same time, “But just because I am right doesn’t mean you should be offended.”
Well I was not offended, exactly. A description of the response this evoked would be closer to the despair which I’ve vowed to fight against, but which your attitudes and still obvious (albeit thinly veiled) hostility drive me toward with bruising regularity.
This situation cannot continue – I agree completely with this statement. However, before I brave the lion’s den, I feel that I must at least have a clue as to what it is I am walking into.
That there is something “going on” viz-a-vis my guilt – or your perception of my guilt – was indicated quite literally in your message of 2/14/05 “Olive branch”.
The paragraph begins, “The anger was levelled….” , but the comment I refer to is in the next sentence, “My despair at the situation with which I am faced was not totally caused by you…” and your next para. , “…and yours that you bear none…”
Of what, may I ask, do you speak? What did I do – or not do – that has caused you such grief? Were I to know that small but most definitely vital bit of information, I could perhaps be a more worthy dialogist.
The answer to that question, I feel, is the key. I am very anxious to hear what it is.
Sincerely,
Maura
