“In Africa I was a member of a family—of a sort of family that
the people of your culture haven't known for thousands of years. If
gorillas were capable of such an expression, they would tell you that
their family is like a hand, of which they are the fingers. They are
fully aware of being a family but are very little aware of being
individuals. Here in the zoo there were other gorillas—but there was no
family. Five severed fingers do not make a hand.”
I just wanted to leave. I was so angry at him.
I didn't want to see him. I didn't want to talk to him.
So, I took my stuff and left.
I had the car, though.
Which meant that I had to come back.
During my twelve-hour exodus, I contemplated returning to an old lover.
But, when I saw him from a distance, I knew that the past was over.
Then, I stopped in to see another and, again, I was happy to discover that the
electric pulse that once throbbed in my loins was gone. Still, what remains is always LOVE -
only now, it's a sweet, generous and forgiving LOVE.
With soft surrender, I returned to experience a warm vibration emanating from my heart when I walked back into his room. It is time alone that affords us the opportunity for deepening into our relationships. And, it has been his family whom I have deepened with. This has been the most beautiful of all. He alone is just one part - if it weren't for the whole, I would have turned on my flat-footed heel and walked out weeks ago. Tribe nourishes us in this way. Although my relating with and to him will fluctuate - with ups and downs and all arounds - it is my relationship with his family that will keep our friendship afloat for a long time to come. After all, it is family that sustains us.
