Monday, July 11, 2005

On a crazy little thing called love

Okay, so today I offer an open letter to my readers, apropos of nothing more than a lengthy 2:00 a.m. phone call that I've had more than once with a friend who shall remain nameless. And, until further notice, dateless.

Everything in life is fleeting, love included. People cheat, people stray, people turn out to be not the people you thought they were. And even if you are lucky enough to find a soulmate, that one true love, you've got , what, sixty or seventy years together before that big old bucket of meat breaks down and one of you is searching match.com for a new shuffleboard partner.

My point here isn't to downplay the importance of the committed relationship; on the contrary, if you're in one, you hold onto it with everything you've got, and if you're not in one, you go into it only with the appropriate respect and reverence for such an institution. Life's too short to halfass a marriage.

But if you find yourself single, dumped, divorced, or otherwise unattached, take a beat to chill out about it. Single, dating, distraught, single again, it all comes and goes, and the people who die miserable and alone are the people who push everyone else away. That dick who dumped you over Instant Messenger might have been a one, but he probably wasn't the one or he wouldn't have turned out to be such a dick.

And one final note: try not to torment your dear friends with endless tales of The One Who Got Away. We all have one, we'll surely have more in the future, and the constant retelling doesn't make you any less dumped than you were six months ago when we still had sympathy for you. Oh, and lay off the "too wounded to ever love again" crap. We know melodrama when we hear it.

Much love,
ACG

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