Buddha1 said:
Evidence of pressures on men from a present day traditional, non/ semi-heterosexual society
Let me narrate you a case I counselled (just one of the scores of such cases that I did!)
This guy came to me when he was 33 and married. When John (not his real name!) was 16 he was a great looking lad. There was a tenant in his neighbourhood who was 24 years and according to John the most handsome man that ever walked this earth.
They became friends and John startd visiting him often. One day the tenant softly took John's hands in his own. John didn't resist and they kept sitting like that for hours --- without saying a word. Now John started visiting him daily and the tenant would hold his hand quietly and they would just sit there --- not saying a word. John did not show any interest or initiative from his side, but allowed the tenant to do what he was doing. In fact he wanted him to do more. But he never said it.
Once they had a 'tiff' and John stopped going to his place. One day passed, then two --- then an entire month. And John didn't go to him. Meanwhile, John had no idea what had befell the tenant. He was badly in love with John, and in desperation wrote a long 'love' letter to him and put that in his letter box. It talked about how the tenant loved John and couldn't live without him. He also said that he knew that "John" love him too.
What do you think John did? Was he amused that his love finally blossomed? No. He became very, very angry. Straight men want to do things within the limits of heterosexuality set by our societies (even though we are not a 'heterosexual' society as such, we have much the same pressures!). He wanted the tenant to do things quietly. He was willing to play an indifferent part where he did not have to own up his sexual need. He wanted it to seem that it was only the tenant's needs not his. But everything must happen without a word being spoken. That's the deal that straight men have between them. NEVER talk about it! NEVER acknowledge it. Just do it and forget that it ever happened. We were just not serious......there were no girls, our passions were high so we just did it. It does not mean ANYTHING!
So John decides, he cannot continue with this 'friendship' anymore. In any case he had been struggling with his feelings eversince he met this tenant. Meeting him made him extremely insecure about his 'heterosexual' status. But at the sametime he couldn't leave him. Now that his letter -- by acknowledging their relationship made anything further impossible, it was easy for him to take a decision. And he had to defend his heterosexual status as fiercely as he could.
So, he walks over to this tenants house, shouts at him for daring to send such letters to him. He tore that letter upon his face, and told him he has "no interests in men whatsoever!". He finds the whole idea "disgusting!".
He came back to his house and in his own words, shut himself up in his room and cried for hours. For one week he lost his appetite and was depressed.
The tenant left the neighbourhood in week's time after that.
Hmm...
Well, I suppose my little story is
VERY much like this one. The hand holding (but not for hours!), any excuse to be near each other or somehow touch the other person, but all the time being so casual and nonchalant about it, like it's just playing around. There's nothing serious about it, really. I mean, we're both guys, right? Women are just fine, thanks!
Even him tearing up the letter sounds familiar! I sent him two letters, one through a friend at school (I graduated the year before), and one to his house.
I remember anxiously waiting a day or so after giving it to her to take to him, so I could hear what he said. I believe they had a math class together.
She asked him what he thought of the letter. He told her he had torn it up and thrown it away. I think she asked him why, and he said the it was "madness." She asked him what the letter said, because I don't think she totally knew, and I think she was maybe a little taken aback that he would rip it to pieces. His response, "It said madness." That was basically all he would say about the contents. She said he acted rather cold and indifferent.
His reaction was so very much like the one you illustrated in this case above.
After the second letter (and no response) I finally got the nerve up to call him, and he was VERY IRATE about it. He told me that he didn't "want that" but wouldn't get any more elaborate than that. The way he
ACTED spoke volumes about his true feelings for me but the words that came out of his mouth I could only describe as
scripted. It was like exactly what he was
"supposed" to say.
Did you read the post a did last week about the dream(s) I had about this person? The symbolism was exceedingly rich in those dreams, and in a few cases actually was precognisant, or predicted in sometimes subtle and sometimes very
LITERAL ways, and I was astounded.
I believe you also read my message about that time I knew overwhelmingly that I would just run into him that one evening, even though I had no idea
WHERE or HOW.
Bear with me on this, but it is probably even MORE important than the relationship itself....
I don't think I mentioned the one time (actually it happened twice) that I was at work, on a weekday, and I was minding my own business when suddenly this powerful thought entered my head:
HE'S GOING TO CALL YOU ON THE PHONE VERY SOON.
The feeling that I just
KNEW he was going to call me there at work was bizarre. I had never really experienced it before. It wasn't just a mental feeling, but like a truth that I could FEEL throughout my body. I remember saying OUTLOUD to myself (although in a rather hushed voice!) "God! Why do I feel this? I feel like he's really going to call me. This is very weird."
An hour later, someone told me I had a telephone call. It was this very same guy!
He had
NEVER called me on the phone before, and I was NOT expecting him to call me at work. So I was astounded that I would just suddenly KNOW what was going to happen.
It happened again a month or two later, but the feeling wasn't as strong. However, the feeling I described when I passed him in my car that one evening after work, was EXACTLY like with the telephone. It was like an instant realization hit me and implanted itself, an instant recognition that I was somehow knowing that this was going to happen.
When I described knowing that he was angry after that girl had been flirting with me that one night, I had felt a strange emptiness or void in my stomach. It didn't feel normal. I kept thinking that I was feeling it because he didn't like me all of a sudden. I knew why, but it felt incredibly weird to just KNOW something. The next day, he threw a box directly at my head without saying anything, and a few hours later told me that he was sick of my poor attitude towards women. Cryptic, yes. But when you understand how frustrated he was and how unable to actually SAY what was on his mind, he did the best he could at that time.
But all of those feelings and dreams as a whole made me feel that
somehow I had a connection to him that went beyond physical. The emptiness I felt after he left my friend's house that night (the same friend who handed him my letter in class), that VOID felt like something had been taken out of me. Whatever his feelings had been for me BEFORE that time, were now gone, and this emptiness was the result.
I cannot get over that aspect of this relationship. It had many paranormal qualities to it, symbolic, archetypal, psychic, etc.
What do you or anyone think of this??? I really would like to know if you ever came across anything similar in any of your cases.
Nonetheless, I shall come back to Earth! I'm just trying to drive home the fact that those strange qualities changed me forever.
Was I connected to him in some powerful way that went beyond space and time, as silly as it may sound to some? I'm very serious about this! A secret relationship like this is bad enough, but to have these powerful feelings and synchronicities on top of it all nearly drove me crazy!