Judith Peck, Ed.D.
So what was it about him that made me fall in love with him, and fall is what we do with love relationships, like trip or stumble, or roll head over heels; something precarious. It felt like an accident, surely something I didn’t plan on. Well, he was interesting; not a boring thing about him, always something new and challenging being with him. No, not that or why not go to the library and find an intriguing character you can spend a week with and then toss in the return bin? It could be because I myself felt intriguing being with him. He was so mercurial I had to keep changing right along to keep up; he kept me sharp and I must have liked that or thought I did. And he was good looking, but ordinary tall, dark and handsome, no exceptional wow components, excepting maybe his eyes which were too intense to look at for long if they were on you. Stuart was smart and made me feel smart; he was a good lover too and made me feel not loved but beautiful and that’s what a woman needs to feel with a man in the dark. But finally, if it came right down to it, the hook that brought me to him and kept me there was empathy. Yes, empathy, because like it or not, I seemed to get right in there with him, taking on his regrets, his terror; I shared the darkness of his days and the unforgiving nights. There’s no escaping empathy. It’s the most human of virtues; I don’t know how I got it and I wish to hell I never did. Seeinginthedark
