The Cougar Saga

Dear Friend,


You may have noticed that I've been avoiding your phone calls.  Sure, I'll text.  I'll write emails.  And when I have to pick up the phone I will, and we'll talk.


But that doesn't mean I'm happy.


I don't handle conflict well.  No one in my family does, and we've all developed maladjusted ways of dealing with whatever conflicts arise.  Some of us are very "loud & proud," while some, like me, tend to avoid situations that make us uncomfortable.


The situation with you makes me very, very uncomfortable.  More than that.  It makes me speechless.  So much so that I had to use thesaurus.com to find words to express the way I feel.  It seems that uncomfortable has some synonyms that I find apt: afflictive, agonizing, annoying, awkward, bitter, difficult, disagreeable, distressing, excruciating, galling, grevious, hard, incommodious, irritating, thorny, torturing, troublesome, vexatious, wearisome. Yes, wearisome.  It seems that a good portion of my day, try as I might, I just can't completely block the situation from my mind.


Part of the problem is that I like to explain things.  To me, everything -- the reason why The Teenager is sullen, why the dog is barking, why my house needs cleaning -- everything has a logical explanation.


Except this.


I do not understand Cougars.  At all.  Especially when the Cougar is preying on a Kid.


Hiding one's predatory tendencies may work for a while, but eventually there is a break.  And why even ask if I'm "okay with it" weeks after we've past the Too Late Now mile marker?  Does it even matter what I say...ever?  You've shown that you're going to do whatever you damn well please, regardless of consequences.


I don't have to like it.  And I don't have to stick around to see it, either.


You're on your own now.  Just remember that eventually the hunt draws to an end, and in that end someone always gets hurt.