dear Kevin Moffett,

This is my first letter to a stranger.  After reading your story Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events, I didn't not feel some magical, unexplainable connection to you.  In fact, if you are anything like the character you wrote (who was the one writing the story), then we may be two very different people with little in common.  However, I did have several deep thoughts while reading it, and came to a few conclusions about my own life.  For that I thank you, and that is the reason I am addressing this to you.

***

I'm not sure how to say this without sounding cliché, so I'll just say it and ask you to be patient with me as I explain.  Love is something that I don't think anyone is able to understand or fully explain.  It seems that once you think you've figured it out, something changes and you're back at square one.  Sometimes you don't even realize that something which contradicts your entire love-belief system is right in front of you and has been your entire life.  Or sometimes it's something new entirely.

I used to scoff at people who said things like, "I believe that you can fall in love with more than one person."  It has always been such a silly notion.  I felt that falling in love meant a mutual love, something that could never be broken, and so once you fall in love, that's it.  No more lovers after that.  This is why whenever asked if I've been in love I am quick to say no.  Of course not.  Sure, I may have believed I was in love at the time, but when it was all said and done I could look back in hindsight and see why I wasn't in love.  Things not working out means no possible love.  Right?  Well, then today I read your short story.  It's not like I've never read or heard a story about a parent whose loses their partner to death and subsequently remarries, and I have definitely seen it on television or in movies.  But something about the way the father is in your story caused me to think more about this.  I guess because he was so calm, and seemed to be so wise despite the son's early ignorance to it all.  It made me want to think more about every situation to see what I could uncover myself.

The main thing I noticed about Frederick (Sr.) is, though it is never stated outright, how he loves his second wife.  He loves her, but he never conceals the fact that he still loves his first wife as well.  To him, love does not stop just because things don't work out, just because she is dead.  Yet he did not let that love keep him from finding a new love.  And it is because he is able to separate the two from each other that his new wife does not feel cheated or anything silly like that.  When I came to this conclusion, I then began to wonder, Yes, but his wife died.  What if she was still alive?  Would that be a different story?  I think it would be in most ways, but one thing that gets overlooked is how loyal love can be.  His second wife could take comfort in the fact that he knows not how to give up on love.  That love can endure.  I think that if you have a significant other that will show that much commitment to a past love, you should not be worried, yet you should delight in the fact that he or she is with you now, committing their present love to you, and if you ever feel unloved then that is your own fault.  This person knows how to love and will not stop simply because you moved on or did something bad or are dead.  Whether or not your marriage or relationship works out is a different story, but to have someone love you without end, no matter what...that is something worth living for.

These thoughts inevitably brought me to look at my own life, and at my mother, who has been divorced since I've been in any kind of public school.  I wonder about her, raising three children alone, never really finding love.  It's not something I've ever given much thought to.  I'm curious to know if she ever felt like she was "in love" with our father.  And if so, did she ever stop feeling that way or has that feeling continued on despite the turmoil between them?  These are questions that will remain unanswered.  There's not much point in asking them except to kill my curiosity.  I wonder, if she was never in love, why she never found it.  Was it God's plan for her to never experience true love?  Why?  Is there still time?  As much as my first conclusion, derived from your second-hand, probably fictional story, made me hopeful and happy, this second conclusion, from my own life, has made me a little sad.  Could it be we can go through life on a search for something that is to never be ours?  Is true love something that is our choice, is it up to fate/chance/luck, or is it entirely orchestrated by God?  Yes I believe in God, and yes I believe that if he doesn't want me to fall in love then I will surely survive and not care when I am dead, but I am not sure I will ever be able to give up hope in it.

So love.  True love.  Can it happen more than once?  Perhaps.  I'm beginning to lean toward yes, although I do not think it wise for anyone to test the limits.  Once is enough.  Can it never happen at all?  Sadly, yes.  There is something greater to live for in this life, but I will not say that this is not at all a sad fact.

sincerely,

vm

P.S.  When you said that Fred (Sr.) learned some exercises to help him control his dreams, was this entirely made up or is that real?  I would certainly like to know.  Thanks.