05-12-2015, 11:03 AM
(05-12-2015, 08:41 AM)ramseycat Wrote: There are always three sides to every story. Yours as you see it. Mine as I see it. And the truth which usually lies somewhere in the middle.
I feel the same way, rams.
I can see being left behind by a lover, far from home (with or without a teen), being a relationship-ender. But, I'm not a fearful or dramatic person, so I don't see it as being a scary life-threatening situation.
In this case, the couple decided to stay together for a long time afterwards and it doesn't sound like he was ever able to get past it. Donovan says that she is bi-polar, he has often reported that he is infuriating to women; it wasn't a good mix and they called it quits. Shit happens, people move on.
Aussie, I haven't birthed a child but I raised two kids and took them on long road trips and flights, starting years before they were teens.
It was my job to get them safely to point B, no matter what came up on the journeys. I didn't rely on anyone else to fulfill that parenting responsibility and we're all alive and well decades later to tell our versions of those adventures (some of which were better than others, by all accounts).
I was not afraid of the unexpected and didn't view the world as a scary place where everyone is either good or evil and all perceptions are absolute. That's not the view of life that I held then or now and not the outlook that I passed on to my kids at home or on the road. They aren't fearful, gullible, judgmental, consummate victims; they're strong capable adults with a healthy sense of adventure (and plenty of flaws, like everyone else.) You and I approach and see things differently; that's all. Different strokes...