Until They Do.
If and when we choose a life partner, the reminders of life's messiness to come - responsibility, compromise, aging - remain on the peripheral of the heart palpitations ignited by hand-holding, comfort solicited by overarching promises, and fantasies about unborn children. Everything else - the stuff that supposedly tears apart both individuals and 50% of marriages in the United States - is too incomprehensible to face at a time when we're still naively invincible. To make this choice is to assume we are part of the 50% who will defy the odds, to continue to make vows of eternal sincerity well after the wrinkles have spread beyond our laugh lines, and to know without knowing that we have what it takes to courageously embrace in sickness and in health, etc etc etc. Until we're proven wrong, we should dance like nobody's watching and love like we'll never be hurt. Enjoy!
Sure and I don't know if can be any more sad than reading this essay, especially from my vantage point: encroaching old age. Already I can count the vast numbers of people in my life who I will never see again, and those that I treasure for the seeing. And that is all I know.
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