Living Alone With Others
Kids are already living alone with others because of the cellphone. We don't have time for them.
The mother was on her phone, so this boy went and sat at the edge of the river.
Living alone with others (LAWO).
There is no solution to living alone with others, despite
what psychologists and other experts say.
Millions of people share a roof with others but live alone because there
is no interest in each other, which leads to less communication, the occasional
good morning and finally dead silence.
People in the LAWO reality somehow feel ashamed as if they
are personally responsible, so they mask LAWO with anecdotes of wonderful
partners, kids or grandchildren and whip out cellphones, the great show and
tell.
Growing kids rule out any possibility of LAWO because watching them grow prompts conversation, some form of interaction: how they
look like a great grandparent; their intelligence (at 2 years); their hurry to
become adults; advice to parents and mapping strategies about blending being
born in Canada and raised with values from somewhere else.
We shall rule out teenagers for now because they are already
LAWO in the basement of their parents’ home or in their rooms with posters on
the door: PARENTS KEEP OUT.
Living alone with others (LAWO) is the last stop after
several attempts to board the bus using appeasement. It might be taking up golf, cycling,
following them on Twitter, red hair dye to support political affiliation, preparing
nightly hot dinners consumed in silence or going to San Francisco every summer
instead of trying different cities.
Divorce is no solution, although it is a piece of cake for
the wealthy or celebrities, but not for many folks who cannot afford renting,
let alone buy another house. In the
novel Sweetness, a rich South
African couple is LAWO in a house joined by a bridge. That is money for you.
Divorce or legal separation comes after the dead silence
stage when the LAWO senses unabashed hatred.
That is why TV murder mysteries of husbands and wives killing each other
with the hope of not being caught, attract viewers. That route is not possible with kids or the
extended family. The LAWO just hurts
more.
Living alone with others can be attributed to many things. Retirement,
for example. There are two individuals,
one working outside the home and the second one working full time at home to
make it possible for the other one to work outside the home.
A classic case of
interior and exterior however, it brings out veiled LAWO because partners that
spent most of their active life outside the living quarters might not notice
that the other partner is LAWO. It only
dawns on them after retirement, when they feel like intruders, into the life interior partners built for themselves while they were in absentia.
Cultural living alone with others can be more
punishing. Grandparents in the old
country insist that they want to see grandchildren born in north America and Europe. Daughters in law try to resist it to no
avail. Grandparents arrive dressed in
clothes from the old country and carrying certain cultural or religious symbols.
Daughters in law resist it but sons want to appease their
mothers. Grandparents finally realize that their powerful old country status is
meaningless abroad. They go back to the old
country or remain in Canada and the U.S., living alone with others.
LAWO is a natural condition, not a medical one. A human being is born alone and dies alone
even for that wonder of nature called twins.
There are stories of twins marrying brothers but they will die
individually. Some people leave instructions that they want to be buried in the same grave with their husbands or wives because they know that death is alone.
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