“We had ridden up way into the mountains – farther than I had gone since a child.
We stopped in one of the main tourist lodges to look around – and the raw crystal slabs of flourite caught my attention, having never seen any of such colored, resonant clarity before.
I turned to him and tried to deferentially ask, ‘Do you think I could get one of these, sometime?’
For I was still very young and not yet solidly employed.
A simple enough sharing of fascination’s joy and longing to hold something mystical in one’s possession as newly budding love’s symbolism.
But there was a piece of reticence in his vague reply – and I detected a strong hinted undercurrent of resentment, which shut me down immediately.
I blew it off and let the innocent request go, sensing sudden clouds of hidden potential conflict between us.
I didn’t understand why or what it related to at the time, but this having to read into what was expected of me to figure out how to keep him happy set the tone for imbedded insecurity in relationship inequality.”
Candid Corvid Productions 