Stay on Your Side:

More than three years ago, by avenue of unfortunate events, no small part of which owed to the negligence and inconstancy of one of my long-time associates, a mutual friend passed away prematurely, in the very prime of her youth, only months after becoming one of the youngest professors at one of the local universities.

By and large, I have spent the last three years mourning her death whilst disciplining myself not to lose my temper with negligent and inconstant people.

Moments ago, I overheard this same individual, walking down my street, alongside a young lady recently duped by him; I might say he was “walking her”, as though she were his dog.

I did not confront them, though I took pains to draw my own dog away from them, at such a pace as even made my aging Pekinese stumble on the gravel.

As they passed and my dog attended to his own business, I had my back turned to them but my ears alert as ever. Their voices had paused. Presumably, if they had sighted me, they muted their voices.

For years I dreaded the possibility of encountering him, knowing he was out there. Yet tonight I did not envy him nor even pity him; I had more important matters to attend to, and that life which remained within my charge I held close to me as I carried my aging canine home in the brisk November wind.

He was afraid of me, and no one to this day have I known to defend him in his entirety. I was only afraid of what I might become in combatting his like.

Some people moralize only to get out of things; *I* make constancy and attention my perpetual pledge, so *my* word remains valuable. There can be no further question that his misdeeds were not against my self-interest alone, for I will never stoop to his level, and those who are fooled by him I only wish to rehabilitate. Ultimately, we shall be judged by the lives we led in their entirety, not only by isolated incidents, and we shall be remembered by everyone at once, not just by one victim at a time.

[({Dm.R.G.)}]