| I think, at this point in my life, I have dated enough people to get a feel for what works and what doesn't work in relationship-building. The guy who made me his entire life? Didn't work. The strange enigma? Didn't work. Overachiever? Didn't work. Save the world/self-absorbed overachiever? Didn't work. Nerd, ex-nerd, nerd-wannabe, nerd-in-denial, the frat boy, frat boy-in-denial, business majors, science majors, asian, middle eastern, caucasian, no experience dating, too much experience dating, idealists, realists, and jaded guys of the world, etc etc etc, all of them failed, in the end. Through all of this I developed a kind of framework. At this point, I think I know it when I see it. They say that women are somehow programmed to not be frightened by the idea of a second, third, or fourth pregnancy no matter how painful and horrible the birth of their first child might have been. They simply don't remember or disregard the pain, which, incidentally is useful for the procreation of mankind. I can't help but wonder if love is something similar to this. No matter how painful it can be and how much you have been burnt in the past, all the history seems to disappear when you think about the current, as cynicism is replaced by hope. So is my new "framework" of what works in a relationship truly objective, or is it influenced by the "hope" inspired purely by nature's mechanism for procreation? |
