"Oh, yes. Shared experiences by themselves won't do it. Between these two, there is much more. There is a match of sensibility, of attention to things, even though in many ways they are unalike. I would say that each one trusts the other to see what there is to see and to understand it-despite all the evasions and indirections that make their personalities complex and give their relationship its purchase and flavor."
"Why do you think Geraldine's memories of him are so vivid fifty years later, and why does Jane deny that they are vivid for her? Mattie was somebody; he wasn't nobody. His life-including the disappointments of its later years, his diminishment, and then his pointless early death-added up to something significant. After someone dies, you're able, for the first time, to see the whole of that person's story: you see its arc; you appreciate its poignancy and its power."
Geraldine and Jane maintain a decades-long friendship grounded in a match of sensibility and careful attention to detail despite personal differences. Each trusts the other to perceive and understand what matters, allowing evasions and indirections to add complexity and flavor to the relationship. That affinity of insight produces a deep, rich connection akin to romance, visualized as two people meeting atop a wall to look beyond separate gardens. Mattie Szymanski's life registers vividly because his arc, including diminishment and an early death, attains poignancy once viewed in whole after his death.
Read at The New Yorker
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