Telling

A few nights ago, as I stood on my son's front porch, a friend from my teenage years saw me and stopped. I had met him for lunch last summer after not having seen him for at least twenty-five years. I'm not going to identify this person, but I will say I know more about him than I think I need to. He's a nice guy and I like him well enough, but he expresses a sense of disbelief when he talks about being abadoned by his wife and kids. Did I mention that he came out about ten years ago? At that time, he had been married for twenty years; his wife found out that he was gay when she saw an email exchange between him and a "close friend". Even after that, they tried to work things out but eventually they ended their marriage. He is convinced that she has turned the kids against him. I don't have an issue with anyone's sexuality, but I think I would be angry if I'd spent twenty years married to a man who knew he was gay (although he claims he didn't know until after he was married).

What he told me during our chat a few days ago was that he is intending to write a book but wants to be anonymous. He says it will be something like "A Thousand Shades of Gay".