We Were Supposed To Grow Old Together

Driving around the north shore of Oahu today, I couldn’t help but note the dichotomy of the scenery, with jagged mountains vaulting into the sky, piercing the clouds on one side and the ocean foaming and clawing at their base on the other. In between, in the middle of a mighty battle, the highway meandered naively through bohemian villages filled with architecture that never left the 60’s. Tiny huts nestled alongside billionaire’s estates without a care.

There was a time I would have envied the money. I would have felt the unfairness of being born without a silver spoon. 
But not today. 
Today I envy the huts. 
Not so much the homes but what I imagined behind the peeling paint of the walls. 

The husbands and wives who have grown old alongside one another: couples who don’t notice the wrinkles or the grey hair because it happened slowly and alongside a lifetime of memories.

I envied that.

I wanted that.

I was supposed to grow old with my lover who called me by a pet name and knew how I liked my coffee and never left me in care of the keys.

Those couples in the hut - they have something that is beyond value. They have something priceless. 

And yes. Today I envied them. I envied the hell out of them.