Maudlin

Recently, I have been reading a book called "The Final Confession of Mabel Stark," a fictionalized biography of one a the greatest tiger tamers in circus history.

Last night reading, one passage took a particular hold of me.

He stood, took my hand and shook it like we were about to sign a land deal; he even brought his heels together in a click before retaking his chair. Frankly, I wished he'd kissed me. It would've made the whole thing less weird.

Instead, we sat, staring at the door to the lawyer's office, listening to the dull hum of a ceiling fan. If Louis was thinking what I was thinking it had to do with the way one minute two people can be close enough to clean the inside of each other's animal wounds and the next minute be worse than strangers. It was a maudlin thought, so I passed the time dwelling on it, for I've always considered maudlin to be one of the truer ways of feeling.

I have always heard the word maudlin and never fully understood it.

Dictionary.com defines it as and adjective that means tearfully or weakly emotional; foolishly sentimental: a maudlin story of a little orphan and her lost dog.

Without knowing the full meaning, maudlin hit me and I must say right now I'm truly in a foolishly sentimental time in my life.

Miss Stark, we might be kindred spirits.