Heh, my cousin withdrew her request to friend me on Facebook that she made almost a week ago at the same time she sent me a curious e-mail about having to face and deal with the issue of "us".

I didn't act on either of those things, because I measure carefully any overture she makes and my response to it. She finally called yesterday and asked about it, and I told her I was just about to respond to the e-mail, and since she called, I did right away. She hasn't responded to my e-mail and today she withdrew the friend request.

Her e-mail was curious because there is no "us". In my response, I didn't reference this "us", but tried to explain that we're on 2 different paths in 2 different worlds. Whatever she feels she needs to deal with, I don't and I'm not. If she was trying to bridge a gap, I was having none of it. She created the gap, she maintained the gap, and if she wants to bridge the gap now, I have no need for it.

Our previous closeness ended when I started planning to move to Taiwan, this I didn't say, and I got no help or support from her on how to have an easier time adjusting. And after all the difficulty I had adjusting, I held it against her and things were pretty chilly for a while. I don't think she noticed. If she noticed, why didn't she do anything? If you think something's wrong in a relationship, figure it out and address it. Otherwise, there's no relationship.

After a while, we warmed up and were able to be cordial, and that's all it's been since, so any business about "us" or "our relationship" is a non-issue for me.

Truth to tell, if this was years ago, I think I might have been offended by her bringing up the topic. What right did she have to even have this on her mind? What right did she have to think that there was anything between us? I'm not offended now because I'm so far removed from any idea of being close to anyone that I'm neither threatened nor affected.

I dealt with it in my own way a long time ago, and she had nothing to do with it. She has no right to embroil me in whatever lingering issues she has. She can deal with it on her own, so if she doesn't respond to what I wrote to her, that's fine, it's par for the course.

I don't understand how anyone could possibly think they have an "in" with me. No one I know really knows anything about me. No one knows what I'm doing. I'm not really a part of their lives, and they're not a part of mine. It's what I've created and so I have to live with that, but they've played their part, or lack of, and they have to live with that, too.