Afterthoughts

What’s the difference between adoring the essence of another person and adoring the way they make you feel? Often, the line blurs, and one’s ability to distinguish between the two is a skill that comes only with time. Or sometimes not at all. Or maybe, with time, the two can merge and become the same thing.

I once asked my mother how my grandpa can love my grandma. She told me, “I think grandpa likes the way grandma makes him feel.”

I think there is a lot of truth to this. My grandpa’s mother died when he was only 16, and so I can’t imagine that he was a particularly happy young man. On their first date, after he first went to the wrong bank to pick my grandma up from work, I can imagine my young beautiful grandmother making him grin ear to ear with all her charm and social intelligence.