Day 36

A picture of my "other half:"

May 1998.  Bet we both wish we were still this skinny.

I suppose we could look more different, but it'd just be comical.  I really did try to think of someone new to show you - maybe a picture of my sister - but this is the honest post.  Lacking any sort of romantic other half, I have to go with the person who constitutes the largest part of me to be found outside of me: Ian.

Not that this is an entirely agreeable or even comfortable state of affairs, our long brotherhood notwithstanding.  Given the amount of internal conflict within each of us, and the elements of our personality - defects and assets - that are near-identical, arguments between us tend to reflect arguments we've been having with ourselves.  And y'know, externalizing that junk - where it cannot be safely ignored or rationalized away - is often a mistake without a therapist present.  (And although both of our mothers would fit the bill, they learned to get out of the way decades ago.)

I think we've passed through the worst of it - mostly but not only because we've each changed, individualized, enough that our internal conflicts don't mirror each other as much as they once did.  Our arguments have lost a great deal of emotional intensity - which is good, because they have only swelled in intellectual intensity.

I swear, sometimes I think we should just skip the discussion phase, draw our Colts, and settle this like gentlemen.