Hey. thanks for your response. i liked the article. i guess i feel like that might be happening.. we are on good terms again, but i guess things are a little different from how they were before. better? perhaps... maybe we have a bit of a better understanding of each other / where things are at than we did before. i guess it is one of those things... i feel like he took a bit of a risk in looking inwards and talking with me. helps me have the courage to take a similar risk. thinking a bit about my mother... something i don't usually think about at all. thinking (trying to think about but maybe not succeeding very well) in finding some transcendent view of objects / people. The transmuting internalization thing... synthesizing is so hard... trying to temper the longing for closeness with thoughts of how desirable independence can be. and vice versa... so hard...