WRITING: Writing the Real

With the birth of the weblogs came a whole new generation of writers who may have that novel within them or may never entertain the idea, but we are the better for their gifts of sharing and Roberta at Elusive Abstractions is one of those gifted writers I regularly read.

You need to read the whole post, but the gist of it is a husband-wife thing and the wanting to offer support while stymied by new behavior, and the ultimate challenge overcome by the closeness of two human beings. This makes it sound dramatic and serious, but it’s not; it’s a wonderfully funny slice of married life:

And so, for these reasons, I am immediately alert, when Hub says to me at the breakfast table this morning, “Do you know the words to this song?”

I perk up my ears and wait for him to hum a bit of the melody, but all I hear coming from his side of the table is a deep muffled rumble like a slipper tumbling in a clothes dryer. His lips are ever so slightly parted in a duplication of Mona-Lisa’s famous smile, and I can tell he is deeply concentrating while exhaling a soft sound, so I go to his side of the table and bend over and listen. An uncommon thing for me to do, because normally Hub talks and sings, so very loud.”