Betrayal

Is there a worse feeling than that which comes from knowing you’ve been betrayed? Your first realization that years of trust and devotion have been for naught brings a dull ache that can’t be easily assuaged, and you wonder if life is really worth the pain, and you wonder if you’ll ever again be able to trust.

I’m speaking, of course, about household appliances. Right on the heels of our treadmill woes, we’ve discovered that our refrigerator is not getting as cold as it should. The fridge (or “icebox,” as some around here are still wont to call it) is not that old, probably less than ten years. I know people who have refrigerators whose lives have spanned decades, and they’re still going strong. This is just not right.

My old friend and former co-worker Joe A. Watson (the “A” distinguished him from Joe M. Watson, another co-worker. Joe A. was an accountant — “A,” “Accountant,” get it? — while Joe M. was in computer support. “M” for “Machine”…duh.) once said that the first true test of a marriage was the point at which the small household appliances received at the bridal shower began to break. It is at that point that a couple realizes that things related to a marriage are fragile.

Well, that’s not exactly relevant here, but it does tend to underscore an important truth: there are some things in life we trust, probably more than we should…but…still. And refrigerators, clothes dryers and microwave ovens (and treadmills) fall into that category. When they go wrong — when they turn on you — you lose a little bit of that winsome naiveity that all your friends envy you for. Life will never again have quite the same shine around the edges, and pretty much all you have left is blogging.

<sigh>