Clouds.

I was a simple man with a simple task in life. I don't have much taste. At a time, I have one real friend who decides that I need to improve, and leaves me. I feel sad, but I am unwilling to change. I like the way I am. If others don't, that's fine. I wait about a year and then date once more. Well, soon after I had gone through one of those breakups, I was much sadder than I would have been usually. I tried to move on, but they had been very good to me and had even moved in for two months. They made me very happy. But they stopped talking to me like all the others.

From a young age, I have not only been stubborn but also very simple. I had two simple tasks: survival and work. People found it hard to get along with me. I had a best friend and we had fun together. We lived together during college, and we are still in close contact. I just don't hang out with him or do anything normal friends would do. You see, I am not very into hanging out. My simple-mindedness makes me think that going places or doing certain things for fun was childish. Juvenile. Simply put, I didn't like doing things like sports, video games, watching T.V., or shopping. Boring stupid junk.

That made it hard to plan things to do for fun or for dates. Most of my dates consisted of a lot of hikes. Which a lot of girls did not find very fun. In fact, a lot would hike one mile and then tell me that they needed to go home. I've heard a lot of different excuses for leaving. I think my favorite was, "I need to have a funeral for my goldfish so my dog and cat can mourn the loss." Then she got in her car and drove away. In all fairness, a lot wouldn't dress for a hike, thinking we were going out dancing or some stupid nonsense. Nope. I think that walking a mile in brand new heels would hurt. I mean, hiking boots can when they are new.

And those are meant for hiking. But some girls wear sneakers and a mile and a half in, they're in burning agony. I can understand that, as I've seen blisters they get. But of course, they don't have a first aid kit or know the wonders of moleskin. Once I had a girlfriend that did like the woods. And I liked to prank her about left-handed smoke shifters, 50 feet of shoreline, the cannon report, and snipe hunting. But my personal favorite was dehydrated water. She got tired of that quick, and two months after we started dating we broke up. Tough love. But she was kind of funny and did push my boundaries a little bit.

Now, I've never been to an arcade or to a trampoline park before, but before I go, I know it's a bad idea. I do not like to do fun things like that. I don't go out on dates girls plan, because all are pretty much the same. Shopping, dancing, dinner. I do not like eating dinner. At restaurants. Every meal I have I struggle as I force myself to eat. Now, remember when I told you about that tough breakup? Well, soon after I was taking a walk in the park when I bumped into someone. She apologized to me. We talked for a few minutes and then she gave me her phone number.

She was very nice and friendly. Soon, we were friends and met up to walk in the park every weekend. It just became part of my Saturday. Soon, I asked her out. She liked hiking and had hiking boots. She liked looking at the clouds and all my jokes, from dehydrated water to 50 feet of shoreline. We had so much fun together. She taught me how to waltz and she led me out of my simple-mindedness. Once, on one of our hikes, she fell down and started laughing. I tried to help her up, but she pulled me down. She cracked jokes and pointed out clouds.

She said that when she was young, she would go camping and hiking. Her mom died when she was young, but before she died they would go to the beach every weekend and look at all the clouds all afternoon. And that was the thing they did. Then her mom died. Whenever she had a free moment she would go to the beach and look out at the sky and look at all of the clouds. I told her I lost my mom when I was young too. She liked hiking. She tried to push me out of my comfort zone, but also told me that I needed to keep some of my simple-mindedness.

She told me that without it, people could be irrational. I wanted to be as rational as possible. To exceed at surviving. To know that I was as good as I could be at the one mission I was put on this planet to do. Work and survive. If I could do both of those things then I could make it. She told me that it was ok to do something other than work and survive. She told me that clouds were forever flowing and they had no beginning, middle, or end. They survived and worked. But they also formed and had fun blowing in the wind and having fun taking a form.

From that day forward I knew that she was the one for me. That she understood me and I understood her. After two years of dating, I proposed. She agreed and then she was my fiance. I was so happy. Neither of us wanted a big wedding. That was way too much. So we went to the courthouse, signed some marriage documents, and had a really lovely honeymoon. Then we were a happily married couple and were officially living together.

Now, being simple-minded and having survival, and working on the brain all the time is good. Working and surviving are two very important things. But sprinkling some fun in with it is something that everyone undeniably needs. Clouds brought me and my friend closer together. I found something new that made me happy: her, me, and the clouds. Even now, thirty-five years later, with her dead, I gaze and the clouds and say what I think she would say and what I would say. There is so much more to life than survival.