Did you know me before you knew me...

...and will you know me after you have known me?

I sometimes think about how people meet. And then disappear. This is not a complaint. I am intrigued how we meet people and then never bump into them.

I am thinking about my ex-husband. Same city. No one would have ever thought we’d meet. We did. Got married. Lived in the same house, shat in the same pot, barfed in the same sink, travelled together. One day we decided we could not stay in the same house, shit in the same pot, throw up in the same sink, travel the same roads and air ways.

So far, so good.

After we parted, we have never run into each other. I would not want us to meet and be friendly. I have stated earlier – I do not visit ruins. But how is it that we have not come across each other ever? Have we changed our routes? The restaurants? The plays, the films, the art galleries?

This intrigues me. I gave the example of what is considered an important relationship. After all, families, friends and other animals get involved. Signatures, solitaires and solitude are shared.

But even when you think about people one has known, it is the same. Is there an inbuilt mechanism that keeps us safe from our past? Or saves the past from our new faces, our polished shoes that do not have a trace of any slush we tripped into?

I do not know how we'd react if my ex and I did encounter each other.

Smile? Ask about each other’s health? Progress in life?

What is progress? Just going from one point to another? Or climbing one step more on a ladder?

And what is a smile? A muscular movement of the lips? An emotion that manifests itself? A polite gesture?

Now I am wondering why people meet at all if they have to 'unmeet'…it feels like carrying stones in one’s baggage.