Introspection

 

In all fairness, in point of fact actually the greatest

likelihood in the answer to your inner-directed

query is that yes, there have been insurmountable

barriers, the very emotional distance erected

between yourself and others that have dictated

over the years none may enter the inner sanctum

of your privacy. Not that you ever harboured

intention to shut yourself away from others

nor be as gracious and social to others as you

expect civil people to be. Your sense of self

is that of an introvert willing to be socially

compliant while spurning a more robust and

open invitation to others to feel comfortable in

your presence. You too much value the comfort

you find in your own mind while assessing the

mindset of others, finding them wanting on all

but rare occasions. So vanishingly rare that one

person alone ever qualified for the open position

of soulmate and with that presence none others

might apply even for lesser appointments. Well

then little wonder is it, that you feel a palpable

coolness in a long-familiar voice, someone you

once fantasized would become an intimate, a

friend sharing like values. For in fact this woman

who married your son is as remote as you have

always been. She too inherited that gene of 

psychological seclusion, comfortable in her own

choices, one of which is maintaining distance

discretely, courteously but firmly from you.