I know most people are riveted to the news of bombing in Syria ..I wrote this two days before it started so I am going to just publish it and go back to watching the news..

Just walking along singing a song ….RMH

Two people functioning as a single social and romantic unit are a couple. The need to be part of this modern archetype is a hallmark of civilized _ one of its greatest strengths and most profound vulnerabilities.. When it fails when there is a break up it is the definition of existential pain. When it works .it is a truly uplifting life affirming experience

The tale of two couples

by Royal Hopper 

What the ???? RMH

Two men stand face to face on a small elevated walkway above a Sin City swimming pool at one of the city’s many Gambling Houses.
It is the middle of what passes for a peaceful night in the City of Sin and the two men are literally buckle to buckle backs straight and shoulders arched heads lowered grimacing with emotion and manly pride. They stand like two pit bulls growling at each other in the I am a man and I am going to smack you across the room posture men often take before attempting to smack each other across the room. It is clear to an experienced eye they have been drinking.
It is the middle of the night and for all appearances and the two men are arguing and clearly upset with each other.
A security guard mindful of his duty to keep the peace in the casino he works at approaches from a safe distance carefully putting the railing that separates the elevated walkway from the pool between him and the men as cover and maintaining the two second reaction gap he will need to defend himself if the men turn on him.

It is a routine call and the men would have to either leap the four foot tall fence and manage a seven foot drop or run 20 yards down a ramp and around the corner to get to the guard so he feels confident as he walks up to the men. He stops in front and to the side of the two men squaring off ask in that time honored casino security guard manner.
“Is everything all right gentlemen,” at once feeling both bold and a little silly.
“I am tired of your crap,” says one of the men and for a moment as the tow men look like they might attack each other the guard an old Sin City veteran regrets not calling for back up before approaching the quarreling gentleman.

RMH

“Fellas is there something going on here. Is everything all right. Can I help you with something?” the guard asks repeating the time honored security guard questions. Asking if you can help someone is a good non accusatory way of finding out what is going on without provoking a reaction from a customer.

There is no hesitation. One of the men, the larger of the two at more than six feet tall turns to the guard and says with tears in his eyes.
“The problem is he doesn’t care about me and never has,” he says.

The two men are a clearly couple. Thirty years ago that realization would have left this security guard flabbergasted, wide eyed and open mouthed with confused shock but after so many years in the City of Sin he simply asks the men to keep the peace and walks away without cracking smile. The couple continues to argue at a lower volume and eventually walks away to their domestic ire exhausted having not thrown a single blow or cursed at each other even once.

Earlier that same night, a mismatched couple, a woman barely five foot tall swings her heavy purse with all her might hitting her lover a hefty guy with a shaved head with it several times until police are called by security at a nearby casino.
A romantic triangle of three women resolves itself also without a single blow or curse one woman retiring to the emotional safety of her hotel room and the other two walking off hand in hand and arm in arm.. An older couple together for 30 years both rattle on likely saying the same thing to each other they have said for 30 years and both pretending to listen to the other as the ramble and vent and a man assist his drunken wife to their hotel room perhaps returning the favor she has so often bestowed on him.

Such is life in the City of Sin..
Take Care fellow Sinners

Rock on