Maybe It’s Not About You

What we imagine, what we fear, and what might actually be true.

Today’s newsletter comes in two parts: first, a little story; then, a reflection. Consider it both theatre and self-help.

INT. KITCHEN. LATE AFTERNOON.
MARNIE is pacing in her socks. She stares at her phone like it just betrayed her. JUDE is perched at the counter, eating cereal out of a mug.

MARNIE
It’s been eight hours.

JUDE
And how many minutes?

MARNIE
Seventeen.

JUDE
I was kidding.

MARNIE
No emoji. No “I’m driving, let’s chat later.” Just a read receipt.

JUDE
Did you consider that maybe he is, I don’t know…busy?

MARNIE
But he always texts back. Immediately. What if he’s mad? Or worse—what if I was too much?

JUDE
You’re spiraling.

MARNIE
I’m being ghosted.

JUDE
Or—and just hear me out—maybe he’s in a weird headspace. Maybe he stepped into a series of meetings. Or he’s overwhelmed. Out of battery—literally and emotionally.

MARNIE
Apparently Mercury is in retrograde and in my third house, which governs communication and humiliation. So.

JUDE
Or... that, I guess?

MARNIE
But why wouldn’t he just say something?

JUDE
Because not everyone sends press releases for their emotional states.

(shrugs)
You don’t.

MARNIE
Yeah, but when I go quiet, it’s poetic. Like… healing in the mountains or something.

JUDE
You don’t go to the mountains.

MARNIE
Exactly. So mysterious.

JUDE
Look. You’re not the only variable in someone’s day. It’s not always about you.

MARNIE
But what if it is?

JUDE
Then you’ll deal. You always do. But maybe, just maybe, this isn’t rejection.

MARNIE
Do you think maybe he got abducted by gentle aliens who just want him to unplug?

JUDE
Honestly? Anything is possible in 2025.

(MARNIE stops pacing, puts down her phone, and finally pours oat milk over her cereal.)

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REFLECTION:

We humans are, by nature, interpreters. We search for meaning like its oxygen. When someone behaves differently—goes cold, pulls away, becomes quiet—we often rush to translate that behavior into a narrative about ourselves.