Great Writing

"At one point, tacking out of Annapolis, [my father] said, "you've got the habit of leaving things unsaid, of shoving things under the rug."

I was startled, unnerved.

"Maybe it's inherited," he added.

I wondered what things he had in mind. He seemed to mean resentments. Did I have so many?

Once upon a time, I'd secretly blamed him for my miseries, for the anguish that plagued me through my college years after Caryn left me. My notion was, that his devotion to my mother -- his emotional dependence on her -- had set me a bad example and given me a model for love that ended up devastating me. But I had abandoned that idea, that ludicrous resentment, long ago. There were plenty of things I was actually glad I left unsaid. Still, the comment haunted me. It haunts me today -- all the things I wish I had said, when I had the chance."

- William Finnegan, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life