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You hooked me, I'm in. I read a couple of these back to back and thought, she's a little out there, and I love it.

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Oh, Ben, you are the sweetest. "She's a little out there, and I love it" needs to be printed on a shirt! I have my batch of silly and serious. I would love your take on both. Thanks!

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Well, my silly is save for when I'm at a party. My wife and I have always been the life of the party. My serious side, well, I was never serious until last year when I was involved in an industrial accident at work that resulted in a death. Not a good year. I'll never get over it, but I have been able to move past it. It didn't help that I was directly involved, and that he was my best "work" friend. (Sometimes you have to put friends into categories: Our friends; work friends; school friends, that sort of shit.) So maybe I won't be the life of the party so much anymore? We all have to grow up some time, and my wife probably thinks it's long overdue. She's been telling me to grow up since she met me. So we've kinda grown old(er) together. I'm 65; she's eye-candy. (There's a picture of her on my 'Stack somewhere.) But she laughs. A lot. And I make her laugh. And she drinks. We both do. (The doctor says too much, I say she doesn't know what she's talking about. We're negotiating.) I even told her I still smoke dope.(the doctor, I mean; the wife knows.) I still have a twisted sense of humour, but I don't think it comes through in my stories. But I also write stories of growing up in a sawmill here on the West (Left) Coast, outside of Vancouver. I started there when I was 19. We smoked dope and drank on the job. There were porn movies in the lunch room at lunch time. (I'd never seen one before. It was in the days before we even had VCRs.) There was a hooker one night; strippers; truckers shooting up in the bathroom; it was a gong show. I put those stories up behind my paywall because I don't want to write them. I only have 7 people there anyway, and I know all of them individually. (One of them's my brother.) I've had dinners with them, went to a wedding or thee with some, funerals, so they're all good friends. They paid for subscriptions the first day I went up here, which really made it difficult for me because I was unprepared.

Oh look, I gave you a little bit of both. Imagine that. Coulda been the wine we had, or the tokes I had. (She doesn't do that. Asthma.) So yeah, when I read about the comic book it made me grin because boys collect baseball (Hockey, up here) cards and comic books. When I moved out, my mother tossed it all away. I know there were Spiderman comics in single digit issues.

I'm hoping things are good with you guys. (I told you I haven't read everything.) I heard this old man say one time: 'It's okay to fall in and out of love, just don't fall out of love at the same time'. I liked that. Pretty sure it's happened to us a couple of times. Ah well, life's a challenge for all of us. At least I don't have Church problems. I haven't been there since first Communion. That's when the Catholic Church changed the liturgy from Latin to English. My Dad, a Dutchman, said he wasn't going to Church anymore because it wasn't the proper service; it wasn't Latin. He'd spent his entire youth as an alter boy learning the proper Latin. He turned his back on it and never went again. I was 7.

And that's my take on silly and serious.

Oh yeah, have a great day!

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Wow, Ben, I'm sure that work accident was (is) difficult to deal with, but I hope writing helps.

As you know, marriages take different turns through life especially since we all change. Leaving organized religion allowed me to build confidence in my body as I explored sensuality. Thankfully, my husband has been supportive.

Eventually, I would like to offer paid subscriptions that provide more revealing essays and discourse over chat. We'll see. I'm just trying to juggle writing with my post-grad school job hunt.

Thanks for sharing. ☺️

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