The Footnote & The Feeling

Thanks to Eric Fulton for this writing prompt. Eric is the geo- tracking mastermind of Eric Fulton’s blog. If you haven’t seen his blog yet, check it out!

If your gut feeling had proof, what would it show?

The rub about gut feelings lies in the name: there is no immediate “proof.” There is no smoking gun or DNA evidence to lead to a neat conclusion. Gut feelings simply exist inside you, often manifesting as a physical stress response—sweaty palms, an increased heart rate, or that heavy breathing that feels like your body is bracing for a hit.

But if my gut feeling could project its “evidence” onto a screen, it would look like a highlight reel of ignored red flags.

The Archival Evidence: 1995

If I look back to 1995, just a few weeks after I met X1, the proof was already being written into the ledger. I once wrote about this in a post called A Leopard Never Changes Its Spots—detailing a deliberate lie told to my family at our very first Thanksgiving dinner.

At the time, I didn’t catch the raised eyebrows; I was “thinking with the wrong head” and completely flipped for her. If I had paid more attention to that red flag back in 1995, X1 probably wouldn’t have amounted to much more than a footnote in my overall dating history. Instead, I ignored the data, and that “footnote” turned into a twenty-year detour.

The Internal Tug-of-War

Today, I realize that my body identifies a violation long before my brain does. My brain is usually hunting for that short-term reward or the immediate dopamine fix of “making it work.” Meanwhile, my gut is playing the role of the Sentry.

When it screams “Wait” or “But,” it’s doing the math. It isn’t just calculating one person’s current behavior; it’s running a simulation based on my collective experience. It’s the “Tricorder” view of my life—scanning the horizon for the same social “bullshit” that tripped me up in the past.

Choosing Option C

The proof my gut offers isn’t a legal document; it’s a pattern. Time has taught me that if something doesn’t feel right, it usually isn’t. The difference in this “Road to 1,000 Days” is that I’m no longer waiting for the catastrophe to prove my gut right.

I’m finally learning to listen to the “Low, Quiet Hum” of my intuition. I’m choosing Option C—choosing myself—before the breadcrumbs even hit the floor.

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AI art created with Google Gemini.

The article “The Footnote & The Feeling”first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.