Life Begins by Jack Gunthridge

you learn
knowledge that continues to grow with the more training and facts
that you add to it. You can then use this commodity to help you in
a job and to further your career. And money grows as you add to it
and invest it. It shrinks when you withdraw it or spend
it.
    But love and investing in other
people doesn’t seem to have the logical returns that I can
predict.
    I looked at my older cousins and
how they would bring their significant other to family functions.
Pictures would be taken, then the next year another person had
replaced the significant other. Pictures still existed as record of
the previous love. I wondered why the change when the appearance of
love seemed to be the same as the picture and as what was in front
of me.
    I don’t have an answer for this.
In the emotional turmoil of my youth, I felt it was best to just
count my losses with Christine and terminate the relationship with
an explanation for her and the world as to why I was severing the
ties that had bound us together. I was cutting the emotional
strings for just reasons.
    I know I hurt Christine by writing
down a record of everything she had ever done to hurt me. It was
never my intention to hurt her. The emotional yo-yo she had me on
had to come to an end. And whether she likes it or not, I can’t
help but to remember every single moment I have shared with her.
I’m a socially awkward guy that wants to love her and make her
happy. I’ve just always kind of missed the clues and not read the
signals that she was giving me.
    This also explains how I could
miss Melinda actually loving me. I had defined the relationship as
friends that would eventually get married because nobody else would
have us. Plus marriage is something that society expects you to
do.
    And I hope this explains why I
would write a Constitution with Christine. I wasn’t trying to gain
ownership over her. The autistic boy wanted the relationship
clearly defined by a set of rules and expectations for both parties
in the relationship.
    I also did better with the
progress reports for the relationship. I needed to be sat down and
told what I was doing right and what I could improve on. I can love
somebody with all of my heart, but I still needed to have that
communication of how I was doing.
    Men often miss the subtleties that
women throw at us. Imagine what it would be like for a guy with
autism. There is a reason one scientist would propose it to be
Extreme Male Brain Syndrome. I miss even more than the majority of
other guys, even if Christine always tells me that I can pick up on
other things that are important that other guys would
miss.
     

Chapter Seven
    Isaiah the Wrong Things
    While the constitution did wonders for us as a
couple, it has by no means been perfect. I still screw up. It is my
nature. My biggest screw up came when she wanted a pet name. We
were lying in bed, she looked up lovingly at me and said, "If you
had a pet name for me, what would it be?" I didn't know. So she
asked me to think about her and to say the first thing that entered
my mind. I said, "Israel."
    She was not happy. Even after I explained it
to her, she wasn't happy.
    Israel came from my understanding of God and
how my relationship with Christine has always been. I think the two
are very similar. It was a natural choice for me. I admit that it
is not exactly romantic in the traditional sense.
    Here are my reasons for this.
    If you look at the scriptures, it is
essentially a love story between Yahweh and mankind, especially
Israel. The creation story centers around Yahweh creating
everything in the world.
    He then makes mankind in His image. This is
something entirely different from the rest of creation. Of all of
the creatures and beings, man is inherently different.
    Angels predate man. They were created to
worship Yahweh. Man was created to love Him. Man was given free
will to decide to worship and love Yahweh. If you then take the
creation of Eve into account, you will see how Yahweh knew