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We All Need Somebody to Lean On
In the past I have often said that I’m an introvert; at the same time, I’ve thought of myself as the kind of person that people could reach out to. I’ve wanted to be a caring and reliable friend. Many of you who read my posts know a great deal about my life, and I like it that way. At times my approach to writing makes me more vulnerable than I like, but I feel compelled to share.
As the doorbell rang, I let go of the napkin I was fingering and hurried, then slowed down, as I walked to the door. Ted watched me from the other side of the room and smiled reassuringly. My heart felt as if it would leap out of my chest. I took a deep breath, paused at the door, put a smile on my face, and said a brief prayer. As I opened the door, Valerie was on the other side with a silly grin on her face.
“The apostolic church is a church of the heart. When you steal from it you steal the heart. Hence the theft is easy, and amends are long and hard.” A strange way to sum up a story of erotic love. Nonetheless, it was Scruton’s way, as he described, in the second half of 
The title for this post is stolen from a novel of the same name by E.R. Eddison wherein the Lords of Goblinland, Impland, Witchland and Pixyland war with one another in unceasing plots and, like many Norse and Icelandic inspired mythologies, tend to rinse, lather and then repeat endlessly. It’s a great read if you can stomach the sometimes awkward writing style and thick language.
This month’s Group Writing topic, “Beauty,” stumped me, initially. Until I recalled a nugget of family lore that Mom Panjandrum shared with me during a difficult time: I’ve had many experiences that did plenty to convince me that I was anything but beautiful – inside or out. The late-tween/early-teen years were particularly bumpy in this regard. One day, when the valley seemed forever deep, Mom P. said: “I have something to show you…”. She parked me in the master bedroom, took something from her jewelry box, and settled in her favorite chair.
George was 77, going on 78 when we met. He owned a firm that rather suddenly had become my client due to an emergency failure in their IT network – an emergency that lasted 20 years. A protégé of George’s at the firm would end-up becoming one of my best friends – a relationship that will last forever.