Catharsis

Catharsis: A release of emotional tension after an overwhelming vicarious experience, resulting in the purging or purification of the emotions. 

I have a friend in The New City.  By all rights I should stop right now and post this.  The fact that I have a friend in The New City should be The News, but I'm not very good at stopping.  I'm not very good at starting, either, and I totally suck at the middle parts.  What I'm good at is telling you when to start and stop and what to do in between but my small, rapt audience in this endeavor has been drifting away and rapidly diminishing.  So I'm left with what follows:

This guy had a dog that he loved with a sharp intensity.  In a disaster of Biblical proportions he backed over his animal with a trailer that was attached to his company's moving van.  The injury wasn't immediately fatal but his dog was grievously wounded.  She lived, her neck broken, long enough for my buddy to drive her to a veterinary hospital, terrified, howling, where she was euthanized. 

He shared this story on a social media site.  There was a huge outpouring of sympathy.  I like Facebook but I like hugs and voices more, so I rang him up using my 1000 lb telephone.  He talked non-stop for 20 minutes, pausing only to sob from time to time.  This guy is one of those guys who could break me in two with one hand tied behind his back.  This doesn't sound as impressive as it should because SuperK can also accomplish this feat, but he is a big man.  He moves furniture for a living.  Big, heavy pieces of furniture.

I was happy to do this.  It wasn't fun but it meant something to both of us.  I think friends hang together on sunny days and when it's storming outside.  I didn't think this way when I was drinking.  I was a sun god.  If you couldn't promise me some serious sun I was going to try to have a nice day elsewhere.  I was not a fan of the harshed buzz.

When The Wheeze hit the road for the Big Friskies Factory In the Sky I posted a picture of her that he saw.  I got, of course, a call almost immediately.  I talked non-stop for 20 minutes, etc. etc.  It was cathartic to share the story of what happened.  It helped me sort it out in my head.  It helped me hang on to her memory for a little longer and to get some reassurance that I did the right thing.  It's an awesome responsibility to hold the life of an animal in one's hands.

Give a little, get a lot.