(no subject)
Just when you think that you've adjusted to the miasma of silence that envelopes but doesn't suffocate, the sharp interruption is a bitter reminder that expectations still exist and indeed it is too much to hope for that solitude be granted with no such grace.
It always begins the same way -- a mindless meandering into memories past, lamenting the loss of friendships as time passes; as if the reason one talks today is to share the news and accomplishments of one's offspring and their various and sundry details, always beginning with their professions and ending with children. Well, when one has no grandchildren to boast of, and the prospects of future boasting is not as bright as ever, then conversation goes out with a whimper and not a bang.
It's as if one's identity is wrapped up neatly in a few words -- marriage followed by children, and even though the law may agree that one can have the former, it doesn't go hand in hand with achieving the latter. Or perhaps in this case, it's never been the dream - neither marriage nor children being on the horizon nor was there any desire for it to be so.
So it's a bit of an impasse. A bitter bitter divide in fact.
Remain calm and carry on.