Everything you mentioned happened to me in that summer-long whatever-it-was. Mr. Summerlong would physically block me. It seems stupid now because it was something I had never experienced. It did escalate into an undesirable scenerio. This is going to sound...stupid...but I felt Mr. Summerlong had been traumatized early in life (and he was also a veteran) so all the stuff was like...a somatic language talking about his abuse. However, I was not his Mama or therapist. I couldn't help him even though we had long, long talks about all this stuff.

A year or two afterwards he left a phone message. In it he said although he appreciated and understood everything we talked about...he couldn't change his ways. He said it was too late. That he was an old dog who couldn't learn new tricks. (He was in his 40's so not that old.)


It was very sad.

Take care. Thank you for sharing.