The Thank-Yous / "2-D cutout" apologia

timeline_event

texture · ~4 July YDPAH (recalled self-justification)

When: ~4 July YDPAH (2008), when Orin declined his fifth straight invitation home
What: Tavis, agonizing aloud (his signature mode), opined that he never expected a Thank-You from Orin for the B.U. liaison — that "a person who did a service for somebody's gratitude was more like a 2-D cutout image of a person than a bona fide person" — then anxiously polled Avril, Hal and Mario on whether he was "a genuine 3-D person," whether he was rationalizing a legitimate hurt, whether Orin resented him for "seeming to move in just as he, Orin, moved out." The recursive, no-boundaries self-interrogation that is Tavis's whole affect.