Home Alone! My Generous Soul

For the past week I have had house guests and the last one finally left yesterday. Now that it’s just me, myself, and I, and I am home all alone on a Friday night, I have finally realized something important about myself.

During the week, I am a total bastard. I am mean spirited, short-tempered, unwavering, confrontational, ill-mannered, aggressive, two-faced, both hypercritical and hypocritical, synical and sarcastic, disingenuous, ungenerous, deaf to others, self-centered and conceited, narrow-minded, anti-social, obsessive-compulsive, bureaucratic, and a horder of cookies. But when I arrive back to my empty house on a Friday night with the prospect of being all alone all weekend long, I go through a profound metamorphosis and let my “True Colors” shine through.

I become kind, sweet, generous, sharing, a good listener, and even sociable. There are no rules except for the rule that mi casa es tu casa. For example, on my way home I stopped by my favorite bakery and picked up two pound cakes for breakfast. But once I walked in the door, I decided to offer them to everyone in my house. I offered to make tea and coffee. I wasn’t going to eat in bed, but heck, if someone else wanted to, then they could go ahead. I even told a few jokes and really let my hair down.

I was singing Bob Marley’s “One Love” and Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love, and Understanding”. I was all about Brotherhood and Love Thy Fellow Human Being. I said, “Come, sit down next to me, let me hear your troubles. I will feel your pain. I shall become one with your suffering.”

Yes, being so generous, empathetic and compassionate is not for all, and it really isn’t something to be done on a daily basis either. But when you’re home alone and getting away from the constant, incessant murmur of other people’s homeostasis, it’s nice to open your heart if only for an evening when no one else is around.

Next weekend my girlfriend will be here, so I can go back to my bitter, uptight and didactic self.