“He wasn’t always a pillar of ice. His warmth and good deeds were repaid with deceit and betrayal until little by little a chill took over.”
-Donna Lynn Hope

There’s cheating and then there’s betrayal.

On the surface they seem to be the same, but they are not.  Cheating is breaking a rule, a promise, reneging on a deal.  It is common to hear of a person being cheated out of money or cheated on by a lover, often a spouse.  Children cheat at cards, teenagers cheat on tests, even athletes cheat, it happens.  The frequency, or our comfort level with it,  doesn’t make it right, but cheating is surface and while it can be upsetting, it can be remedied through laws and decisions.

Betrayal is different, it’s worse.  A private ache for which there is no real remedy, we simply have to take the punch and move through.  It hits where trust, love, bonds and intimacy dwell.

We are betrayed by people we have known all our lives and those we invite into our inner most circles.  Betrayal robs a person of his open heart and forms scar tissue around the tender parts that make him human.  Betrayal makes fools of us.  We are never the same and we learn.  Betrayal is a harsh teacher and the lesson is cold and very adult.

It is difficult watching someone you love endure.  I would take it for him if I could, but I can’t.  He’ll push through, be the bigger person and survive.

He always does.

My thoughts from the laundry room.  Lock Up.

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