“You know what I’d really like to try for dinner?
French onion soup. I hope they have French onion soup.”
“Oh, they have French onion soup,” Steph’s muffled
voice assures me.
Some of the rocks get rearranged on my back. It’s also
weird to be naked from the waist up in front of strangers, but I
guess if you do this for a living, a body is a body. Kind of like
a doctor, maybe. For me it felt weird putting on the robe they
gave us but then taking it off. Steph did it completely
naturally. The oil and the rocks were worth it. I’ve really
enjoyed this, I realize, as the rocks get shifted again. They’re
hardly warm now, so I’m sure that we’re coming to the end of
the massage. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I did enjoy it. I
guess it did make me happy.
Pretty soon we’re left to get dressed again. Steph gives
me a nervous, hesitant look as we exit the spa area. “How was
it? Was it okay?”
“Yeah! I loved it.”
“I thought you might have liked part of it, but not other
parts, and then you wouldn’t consider doing it again.”
“Some of it was weird, I guess, but that’s okay.”
“Some discomfort is okay with things, I find. I used to
think that because something was uncomfortable that it wasn’t
okay, but I’ve learned that that’s not really true. Especially
with teaching. Learning actually makes lots of people
uncomfortable. It challenges your perception of life and the
world most of the time and for lots of people, even young
people, that’s really hard.”
“Really? Do you find that?”
“All the time.”