The Angel

"How mean," a friend once remarked when I said how some people are such sissies. "But that's how I see it." I argued. "What is a sissy? Isn't it being cowardly? Being weak?" "Yes, but..." "So how would you consider someone who requires someone to have a list of material things to own? Oh, my boyfriend must have a car, a condo, rich, blah, blah, blah. Isn't that a sign of weakness? A sign of dependence? A kind of effeminacy, a regression to the dark ages when women were the weaker sex and they need these things as security for their future? Why should these things be on the MUST list for a boyfriend? Is he too weak to earn on his own? Is he not man enough to dream these things as something he could acquire for himself rather than necessitating these things on some dreamboat?" "Still..."

I toggled the switch on and off a couple of times and pressed the "Connect" rubber button to make it appear I was having trouble connecting the bluetooth keyboard to the iPad. In reality, it was a simple connection process that took me all of ten seconds to figure out. But my Filipino officemate sat there talking, her face glued to the computer screen, as she went on a litany of what she had just emailed her son. He's 29 years old, same age as I am, with no work, despite having graduated from an expensive school in Manila. Last December, he got married and for one month, my officemate had stepped back to let her son enjoy the honeymoon. But, as she said, honeymoon's over and there's married life to contend with. He can't be married and unemployed and still be dependent on her. When she would ask him what his plans were--to work or to study again--he would shrug his shoulders. He spends his days in their house here, playing computer games or trying out whatev