What Drew and Jolena Need

Tintype by Margaret Muza

When you are a vibrant person, buoyant with energy and chatter and pluck, you may need to be with someone who is constant.

You may need him to calm you when your verve tips over into anxiety, which it often does. You may want him to point out that you’re absentmindedly at it again in your worry, kneading your cheeks and pulling the skin of your neck taut with anxiety. He will remind you and his presence, like a deep breath, will help. You can expect him to be rational and steady. You can depend on him to shore you up when intense empathy threatens to swallow you.

When you are too full of feeling for others, he will be the one full of feeling for you.

When you are a reserved person, you may need to be with someone who is bright, shimmering with vitality.

You may need her to show you the right way to get angry when someone in your segregated city feels free to aggressively denounce your relationship, right there on the sidewalk outside the restaurant. You may need her to spark passionate learning in you, to make you care about things that haven’t affected you personally before.

When you are apt to steadily plod on in a single direction, she will chisel your life into something multi-faceted.

You may need him to teach you the difference between Neil Diamond and Neil Young.
You may need her to offer you the ebullient beats of funk music.

You may need him to grill fish in a way you’ll finally want to eat it, and to still your fingers.

You may need her to give you the freedom to be quiet and serene, while singing inside.