{"id":685,"date":"2010-05-21T12:49:41","date_gmt":"2010-05-21T12:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=685"},"modified":"2010-05-21T12:49:41","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T12:49:41","slug":"paul-handley-is-caught-up-in-tough-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/paul-handley-is-caught-up-in-tough-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Handley is caught up in tough love"},"content":{"rendered":"


Love Clich\u00e9 <\/span>
  <\/span>

Rebekah believed in the power of the healing heart<\/span>
Hearing her say this didn\u2019t crush his heart,<\/span>
But a part crumbled to the floor.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Another time she actually said the words,<\/span>
One following the other, \u201c<\/span>mission statement<\/span>\u201d. <\/span>
 <\/span>
\u201c<\/span>Never settle<\/span>,\u201d<\/span>
Patently ridiculous.<\/span>
Everyone settles.<\/span>
Should I not settle for my parents and get new ones?<\/span>
Should I wait in a downpour for a cleaner taxi?<\/span>
 <\/span>
Should I quit school until I feel a universal oneness<\/span>
precipitating a religious permutation<\/span>
of all my classmates and teachers?<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u201c<\/span>Time is the most precious thing to me<\/span>,\u201d<\/span>
Another of Rebekah\u2019s dividends. <\/span>
If you never settle, how much time are you wasting?<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u201c<\/span>Every day is special<\/span>\u201d.<\/span>
She professed understanding and sweetness<\/span>
– which she definitely was –<\/span>
 <\/span>
but also vindictive, callous and a formidable enemy.<\/span>
When he was in the wrong,<\/span>
she would bear down on him.<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u201c<\/span>I want to be happy all the time<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>
After pondering, he said,<\/span>
I think I would miss it, being sad,<\/span>
 <\/span>
if I was happy all the time.<\/span>
She gave him a look.<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u201c<\/span>Knowledge is power.<\/span>\u201d<\/span>
If you get an A on your physiognomy test,<\/span>
I will make you lunch this Saturday.<\/span>
 <\/span>
It\u2019s a slippery slope<\/span>
from pouring hot wax on nipples to removing a vital organ,<\/span>
he thought as he tongued a cube<\/span>
 <\/span>
of cantaloupe in his left cheek.<\/span>
Since he was slowly losing his mind<\/span>
and didn\u2019t like being tugged<\/span>
 <\/span>
around by the short hairs of his crew cut,<\/span>
he would occasionally lash out,<\/span>
but quickly beg forgiveness.<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u201c<\/span>Tough love<\/span>,\u201d<\/span>
she told him once.<\/span>
 <\/span>
After each incident she measured out<\/span>
punishment with greater severity.<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u201c<\/span>Time is the most precious thing to me<\/span>.\u201d<\/span>
Forgetting that she had mentioned it earlier<\/span>
 <\/span>
or trying to imprint the message through repetitiveness,<\/span>
Rebekah told him after an incident<\/span>
where he had strained to hurt her,<\/span>
 <\/span>
\u201c<\/span>I do not want to be with someone<\/span>
who hurts me that way<\/span>.\u201d <\/span>
 <\/span>
The cornerstone of a good relationship<\/span>
is being comfortably off balance.<\/span>


* Paul Handley<\/span> has driven a cab and sold meat door-to-door.  Links to his work are at <\/span>http:\/\/editred.com\/mcdede<\/a>

<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love Clich\u00e9   Rebekah believed in the power of the healing heartHearing her say this didn\u2019t crush his heart,But a part crumbled to the floor. Another time she actually said the words,One following the other, \u201cmission statement\u201d.  \u201cNever settle,\u201dPatently ridiculous.Everyone settles.Should I not settle for my parents and get new ones?Should I wait in a downpour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}