A Metaphor: Throw Me (Them) A Rope

You know those times when you answer your phone, be it your cell or home landline, fully expecting to hear a response to your cheery hello, but you only hear silence?


Do you wonder why, when you know someone else is on the other end of that call, you only hear the static on the line, or sometimes, even the faint sound of their exhaling and inhaling? Why don’t they answer, we wonder? Or maybe we ask the unknown (although sometimes known) person that very question, wondering if we might get an answer after the initial silence. ‘Hello?’ we ask again, a little more doubtful (and yet still hopeful), but mostly expecting silence the second, third, and sometimes fourth time, for those of us who really want to know the answer.


Are they afraid of responding? Afraid of reciprocating to a hopeful response to THEIR call. Did they forget it was they who first called, who first tried contacting? Did they decide against it that split second their fear kicked in at the sound of someone’s voice?


Or do some people maliciously call, fully intending to leave someone hanging either by the sound of their breath or a deafening silence?


Those of us receiving the call cannot know the intention. Maybe we must always keep that hope and reservation in our minds when answering a call, or a relationship, in life.


Not a bitter expectation that everyone who calls without answering is a d*mn hooligan, but just leaving room in our thoughts that people are afraid or hurting or uncertain themselves that someone might respond to them, in words or action.


Is it possible that the connection itself may be broken, on their end, or yours, or both? Maybe.


I know sometimes I want to react to these situations with a bitter sarcasm along the lines of ‘throw me a frieking rope or don’t make the effort to call at all!’ But are those really the words I want to say to someone? Is it really what someone who is hurting or scared needs to hear? Maybe they need that rope thrown to them more than I do.


I guess I think about these sorts of things during the silence of an unanswered call…and in other situations much more pertinent to my perception of life and people.


Patience. Understanding. They seem like the answers any way I look at it.


Just my musings.