We see this most at the end of break or a weekend home. Parents get on our nerves, we get on their bad side. There is an angry exchange as we are loading our car to return to campus.
It also happens between us and our peers at the end of a school year.
Now, there are legitimate and clear reasons why all the crap we have put up with for months or years needs to boil over and "they" ought to have a piece of your mind!
But there is also the possibility that the cause of conflict is rooted in how much we have exposed ourselves to the other person(s) and how integral they have been to these months or years of our life. We worry what they will do with the parts of our lives which hide from most persons but have shared with others. "Let's have a fight!" then we can both dismiss what the other does when we are no longer together.
I am attune to this because of my pastoral conversations with you. I see the signs of separation anxiety. As I was praying this morning, I wondered how careful I need to be about this as I prepare to step aside from this role. I am so attached to all of you, that I find it impossible to imagine my life come August. And it is tempting for me to begin to find fault and to complain about the messiness of the Lounge or having to tell you about an event clearly posted in the E-News. And what of your thoughts about me?
It is difficult to move ever closer to the end of time spent with another. There is a predictable (though odd) response to such a stress. Let us hold firm to the heart of Christ, which allows us to give thanks for the gift which has come our way and to celebrate the way in which what we have had is a preparation for what God will bring to us next.
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