sorry about your…

Oh man, I won two games tonight.

What bliss.

I, along with my team, won a game of ultimate frisbee and then I won a ping-pong tournament against someone who will remain nameless. Isn’t that so generous of me to leave him anonymous? I mean, it could really be a blow to his ego if the whole world knew exactly who it was that I beat in ping-pong. Quite soundly, I may add.

But nope, you won’t get a name out of me. Not about this, anyway.

And moving on from my unidentified friend who I beat in ping-pong.

Moving on to a phone call I made earlier.

I had to call AT&T because I awoke to a phone that had been shut off. Now that was not the most abnormal thing for me before my life exploded, I could go back to just the usual four names that I had been given at birth, and I traded a house I hated for a house I love. But now, well now, I am on my mom’s phone plan and she is nothing if not punctual with bills and such. Thus, miracles of miracles, the phone stays good and on.

Until today.

So I called AT&T to make sure that I was firmly on the Latshaw plan and not at all connected with anyone whose last name isn’t Latshaw, if you know what I mean. And so I explained to the lady over the phone that I am recently divorced and that my phone is now shut off and that I need to make sure that I am no longer on the old plan. A

nd after I said this, she just rattled off a sentence in the kind of innocuous tone of voice one uses for telling your friend that you’re sorry to hear her great Aunt Beatrice has bronchitis and you hope it isn’t actually consumption and goodness, but she better sleep with her window shut because the nighttime air cannot be good for a person.

Basically she sounded distant and unconcerned as she told me, I’m sorry to hear about the divorce and your phone being shut off. But actually she said it more like, I’msorrytohearaboutthedivorceandyourphonebeingshutoff without even a breath to give separation or distinction to either of my plights.

As if they are both pretty awful.

And when she said this, I couldn’t help but laugh. Because it’s hilarious. To hear a total stranger offer me condolences on two such separate, end of the spectrum type circumstances in the same thought is just too good.

But I did stop my quiet laughter so I could tell her, Well, I do think one is weightier than the other.

And then we were both laughing.

And it was good.

And then she told me about her story. About the man who had cheated on her and broke her heart in about enough pieces to rival the sand on the beach; how she couldn’t sleep at night and started letting her anger come out towards her poor innocent mom, though she knew her mom was hardly to blame. She told me how, after another failed marriage, this guy begged her back, but knows she is better than that. She told me about her kids and how they are good kids and that even though she’s a single mother, she raised them right and that’s speaks of something good and present, rather than the lack that is so easy to feel.

And she also told me that she is happy. Thrilled, actually. Well, she is now at least. And isn’t it amazing what time can do? How it’s the friend who comes over whether you want them too or not because they know that they can help you. And so you’re laying there helpless and unable to even offer Time a cup of tea, when suddenly you look at the clock and see that it’s later, sure, but more importantly you start to feel.

You feel like putting pants on and maybe even some lip gloss. You decide that the world still has so many things to throw at you; that maybe all those throws will be more like little league and even if it hits you hard it won’t hurt like it’s hurt in the past.

And so this woman and I, we certainly did have a talk. And yes, I told her some of my story–and she was appropriately saddened and appalled. And the cell phone being shut off took quite a backseat to the matter at hand, the matters of the heart. the matter that you try so hard to put your mind over.

And it’s delightful to find that human connection. To know that we are all people and when our journeys intersect-even so slightly–it is good to notice it. To learn from each other as we share our stories, respectively.

But still, Sorry about your divorce and your cell phone being shut off. I mean, whose life is this? I know it’s mine, but it’s a mine that I never anticipated, I have to admit.