A Cult of Two Personalities (Part II)

So I left off with how the current CM Punk storyline mirrors my own life in a few ways, particularly a possible effect of something that Chris Jericho said. Last week (right after I posted), Punk mentioned in a promo that he was proud of the strides his father has made. That’s where I’ll pick up.

As I grew up, my relationship with my dad remained fairly static. Actually, things really came to a head when I was 20 and he called the girl I intended to marry…well, something you don’t call a future daughter-in-law. That was bad enough. I told her and then she distanced herself from me, leading to our breakup a month later. That made it worse. After that, I was so mad that he and I didn’t speak much at all until I finished undergrad…two and a half years later.

No, I’m not going to run through every bad thing that’s happened between us. One, that’s not the focus; and two, it’d take too long. At any rate, we had a decent talk on my back porch during graduation weekend that basically smoothed everything over. We weren’t close, but at least things weren’t what they had been. Yes, my parents got into some argument that had me thinking twice about going out…but out I went and everything seemed okay.

Fast forward about five or six years. I was running through the first of several rough patches in a relationship and I talked to him about them from time to time. Now, when he and I get on the phone to this day we can’t talk for more than 15 minutes. Not sure why, as neither of us is a stranger to longer conversations (not that we’re chatterboxes, but 15 minutes isn’t that long). That was something we seemed to vibe on, though: my issues mirrored the issues he’d always had with my mom.

That opened my eyes and really helped me understand him more as a person. It also helped me understand myself. While I am obviously happy my parents got together, I wouldn’t have wanted any relationship I would’ve gotten into to mirror theirs. I guess I just remember all the things from when I was little that I wouldn’t want my children to be around: not even things just between them, but some stuff outside that.

Well, over the last few years he’s calmed down a lot. Yes, he still wears on my mom’s and my nerves from time to time; but they’re less frequent and I think he better understands the effects of earlier actions. I think he’s calming down as he’s getting older, but he retired about two years ago and there’s something he’s done a lot less since his retirement (guess what it is).

Around Christmastime he was telling one of my cousins as we ate dinner that his routine is different than it was when he was working and that he drinks a lot less because of the routine change. He said he’d just have a beer or two out of habit when he got home from work or after doing yard work on the weekends. Since he doesn’t work, he said he doesn’t get as revved up and therefore doesn’t feel the desire to drink as much. A lot of things started to make sense to me at that point.

The people I see drinking the most - especially around the house, as opposed to drinking while out - are usually the ones who I’ve heard to have the most issues. Dad hangs out with people more than he used to - also a function of time, of course, but I think the reduction has had something to do with it.

As Punk said Monday, I’m proud of my dad for not drinking as much and becoming more sociable. I’m happy that he takes care of himself more. He walks in the mornings, he goes to the doctor regularly, he enjoys himself a lot more than he used to. He just seems like a happier person…and that makes my trips home a lot easier than they used to be (including the one I’ll take this week), for more reasons than I care to mention here.

It’s nice to be able to drive home without worrying about what I’m going to see or find when I get there. There’s a certain peace about it that I really enjoy. There are two things that made me dread drives home, and in the last 2-3 entries I’ve pretty much covered why neither is a problem anymore. So not only am I proud of my dad for that: I’m also quite thankful.

PS: for those who saw the show last week and are wondering why I never mentioned anything about Jericho’s comments toward Punk’s sister, I’m an only child. Also, I meant to write this toward the end of last week but some things got in the way. There may or may not be a third part, depending on tonight’s final pre-WM promo.