To Not Be Alone,

People will drink substances they find intolerable.  They will go out with people they don’t even like.  They will call phone sex hotlines.  They will join fanatical organizations.  They will agree to suicide pacts.  They will stay with husbands who beat them.  They will profess religions they do not practice.  They will fork out boatloads of cash for counseling sessions.  They will slander, backstab, butcher, and destroy.  They will root for a team full of strangers in a sport they don’t care about in a city they don’t understand.  They will send information into the limitless expanse of the internet hoping that someone else will catch hold and respond.  They will tell stories over and over, revising and re-telling, trying to get it right, hoping that one day they will reach someone.  Someone who gets it.