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Michelle Swisz

Here is a Drabble that is intended to illustrate the theme of Balance by using what amounts mainly to internal dialog. The author in this case is, ahem, me.

Exit

Game over. I see the exit sign. I'm propelled on my own choosing, walking away from love whole. My legs carry me so that nothing, nothing, of me gets torn away as I go. Someone offers to make me forget. Come in, see my aquarium. No, not that way! There ought to be a sign.

And I'm getting old. I have no magic eyeglasses, either, to read the signs with, before I am past them. Anyway, I'm afraid glasses would leave me perpetually poised nowhere. I'm slowing down, though, I see. Enough so that the signs are getting clearer now.

Respect can be a dirty word sometimes, as in respect for the feelings of others. It can feel diminishing to be expected to kowtow to the capricious feelings of someone else—someone who obviously, in their hysteria, and therefore in their character in general, at best doesn't see the whole picture. There she is again, tears welling up at your suggestion that she is not lately pleasing to you. Or, there he is again, taking exception to your having worn only sweats at home for the last six months. But it's always you who's got to take the high road, isn't it, if anyone is going to, because they are much too shortsighted to be able to do it.

Has it ever happened the other way around, that you are the one who has been knocked around by these undignified things we call feelings? Have you ever been taken by surprise at the forgetting of a birthday, or been taken at your word when you said you wanted to break it off when you really didn't mean it? What happens when you are the one with the feelings, and that certain someone won't lower himself or herself even to understand them, much less cater to them? What happens when it's you who feels rejected and neglected? Left without them to deal with major life events? Do you cry, do you stomp away, do you turn away?

So what is respect, anyway? Is it a lowering of oneself that's inappropriate and unfair? Is it a deference that's conferred according to the value you place today on the other person's accomplishments, or even on their being itself? Is it the high road in the best sense of the idea?

You decide—create your world of respect in a Drabble. Read the Guidelines, and then send your drabbles to: drabble@wvu.org. See you next time. Happy New Year!

About the Author
Hello, and welcome to Drabbles. I'm Michelle, your Drabbles editor. I live north of San Francisco, with four spoiled cats, near the sea where I love to walk every day. I've tutored English in workshops, classrooms, and individually at San Jose State University, and have worked on the Fiction Panel here at Writers' Village. Comments and questions are always welcome!