Storytelling Week 3: Unthankful

I found myself headed towards Sooner’s Place again. It’s the one bar available in town. Most of the time I’m headed there on the weekend to hang out with some of my good buddies. Today, I’m walking there with my head down and shoulders drooping. I’m there almost every week, so I’m pretty close with the bartender, Julie.

Old Fashioned Pixabay

I walk in with a frown on my face and Julie already knows the drill. She places my usual Old Fashioned in front of me as I take a seat.

“You look extra somber today. Rough week?” asked Julie.

“Well truthfully, my wife Crystal and I had the ultimate fight. She divorced me and moved out of the house,” I replied. I took a big gulp of my drink and Julie was already making another.

“What! What happened?” exclaimed Julie.

“Well, the thing is, we had been fighting constantly. We were married for ten years and I just thought that it was normal to hit this stage in marriage and that it was just a phase, but then everything got so bad. We couldn’t have a normal conversation without her bringing up my past mistakes. It’s like she could never forgive me. She was always nagging at me too, always making comments about why I came home so late and why I never spent time on the weekends with her anymore. She said I wasn’t being considerate of her feelings but seriously, do I always have to cater to her emotions? It was so annoying. She also told me that I was slacking off on the bills too! I mean, don’t get me wrong, I know I’m supposed to always be there for her and help her out but how much more does she need from me? I’m still my own person and I need alone time too. She never understood me and I was just so tired of the griping,” I replied.

“So what’s the problem then? She’s out of the picture and that’s what you wanted, right? You should be celebrating now that you’re out of that horrible relationship!” said Julie.

I took another drink and sighed. “I thought that too. I thought that the divorce would make me happy and that I could just move on with my life and find someone better. Here’s the thing though. It took me a while to realize this but I finally see that I took her for granted. Even though Crystal got upset with me sometimes, she was always there for me. It’s true that I stopped spending a lot of time with her and at the time I felt like I didn’t need her anymore, but now I realize that I do. I really do. Here’s what kind of person Crystal really was, Julie. When I couldn’t pay off my school loans, she picked up a second job to help me. And then when I got sick with the flu a couple months ago, she cleaned the whole house by herself, mowed the lawn, and she cooked soup for me and even hand fed me for a week. When I told her that I wanted to move to Oklahoma to be closer to my family, she sacrificed her job and friends in New York just so that I could have what I wanted. When she said she wanted to have kids, I refused because I didn’t want that kind of responsibility. She told me that she wouldn’t force me into something I didn’t want to do so she gave up her dream of being a mother. She always encouraged me whenever things at work weren’t going so well and she always forgave me whenever I did something wrong but this time, she said she was done with my ungratefulness. She said she didn’t feel valued anymore. I was so stupid. I told her then that she was being such a brat, and that’s when she told me she couldn’t handle it any more, ” I said dismally.

I thought back on all the good memories I had with Crystal and how clouded my mind became over little things that didn’t even matter. I felt so ashamed of myself for becoming so selfish and letting my greed overshadow my appreciation for someone. I wanted to go back, but now it's too late.  I had taken my wife for granted and now I’m full of regret.

"You know, it's never too late to apologize. It won't erase what's already been done and it might not solve much, but I think she deserves an apology. Take ownership of your faults and maybe she'll forgive you. Even if she doesn't, maybe after you have tried your best, you can start forgiving yourself," advised Julie.

Author’s note: My story is based off of The Plane Tree fable by Milo Winter. The fable tells a story about two people who sit under a tree. They complain about how useless the tree is because it doesn’t grow any fruit. The tree replies saying how ungrateful the travelers are being as they sit under the tree for some nice shade. The moral of the fable is “Our best blessings are often the least appreciated." That resonated with me because it’s very true that most people take the things that they currently have for granted. People always want something more, something better, but don’t realize how thankful they should be for the blessings we already have. So, I was inspired to write a story about how we take the people in our lives for granted. We tend to concentrate on the negative things about them. Sometimes, we gripe about our families or peers but very seldom do we take the time to realize how good they might be. I wrote my story with the approach of a man telling his bartender about his problems because bars are a place where many stories are passed around so it's a casual setting with a serious message.

Bibliography: "The Plane Tree" by Milo Winter, from The Aesop for Children (1919). Web Source