Self-Destruction can be an Attractive Option

I was thinking of a friend of mine, for whom this definitely applied.

I met her at a nudest resort (actually a clothing-optional resort) where we must have been attending some kind of workshop. Everyone was attending, or presenting workshops back then, in the Nineties, in California. She seemed to be someone special, who had her own mind. And I decided I had to know her better. So we dated - as the expression was then.

She had an unusual story. Her passion in life was the Theater, and she graduated from the University of California at Berkeley - where all kind of crazy things were going on. She met her husband there, who was also passionate about the Theater. After they graduated, they promptly left for New York City - because this where the Theater scene was.

Her husband become involved with an offbeat producer, who believed in free theater. But he also became an alcoholic, and succumbed to that. Meanwhile, my friend Carol, was having children.

There she was, without a husband, or anyone to provide for her. So she did the sensible thing, for her, and joined a Publisher that was also headquartered in NYC. And rose rapidly there. She was an excellent editor, and had a good feel, for which writers did good work. She was a success!

But she then destroyed this success - a pattern that she would repeat throughout her life. When I met her at the nudest resort, she was dead broke, and sleeping in the back of her car.

I was working as a Technical Writer, and I told my boss I needed an editor to work with. He approved of this, and I hired Carol, as my editor. She was an excellent editor and we worked well together. I could just produce a rough draft, and she would polish it up. I became a more productive writer, working with her.

And she had money! A  miracle, for her. But it did not last long. She and her girlfriends joined some wild parties in Mexico, with a lot of drinking. Before she knew it, her money was gone,

She next became involved in mobile housing. This was back when anyone could get a mortgage, whether they could pay for it or not. She soon owned a mobile housing unit, and a lot she could park it on - when she could pay for neither. She was coming up in the world! But this did not last long either.

I lost track of her, when I moved to Costa Rica - but we resumed our friendship, using email. Then she did something, many of my friends did. She terminated our friendship abruptly, giving no reason for this. She destroyed our friendship - which I valued.