You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Relationships.
Between lovers? Between family? Between friends?
What makes them tick?
What makes your skin clammy, your adrenaline rush, puts a smile on your face?
If you could slide the relationship under the microscope and observe it at the sub atomic level what would you see?
Smear a sample of your relationship on a petri dish and examine it for a pulse, what would it convey?
Is it like Ebola, toxic and deadly?
Is it like Penicillin, Healthy and curing.
Is it enigmatic like the origin of the universe, like Love itself?
Ah. If I knew that, I’d live in Vegas and bet on the long odds.
There’s a hand book for relationships. The problem is, nobody seems to have one.
Your bartender could give you advice. Your best friend can tell you what you want to hear. Your parents can offer insight and guidance.
But like the Life Sherpa, nobody knows the path. Nobody knows how long to walk forward, how long to hang on, what might exist around the next curve.
They say time heals all wounds, but does it?
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but will it?
Are we meant to stay with the same person forever?
Are we meant to find a soul mate?
Is life a fairy tale? Are we meant to try on the glass slipper and live happily ever after?
What if life is a book that you read in concert with your significant other. What if you are on the same page. What if one of you reads faster than the other?
Do you kick them to the curb? Do you say your confused and call it a day?
Relationships? They are matchsticks. When lit they illuminate, and can ignite hope.
But held too long, they can burn.
When do you let go? How long do you hang on?
There’s no answer here. There’s no way to know.
Someone once told me that even when it is wrong, it involves matters of the heart, and when the heart beats, the brain gets fuzzy.
Can you remember why you left? Can you remember why you held on so long? Can you remember why you thought there was something better on the other side?
Is there another side?
What if this is it? What if the rules of established parameters are merely guides for acceptable behavior?
What if?
That’s the postal zone of a relationship?
What if?
What if you zig when I zag?
What if opposites attract? What if they don’t?
What if the relationship reality of time and space is altered when you place relationship boundaries that never needed to be placed.
Wow. Complicated isn’t it?
It takes two to tango as two hearts beat as one.
There are two sides to every story, but the truth is usually found in the middle.
Relationships are many things to many people.
They are a grassy knoll where a sniper lays in the dark.
They are a warm blanket on a Sunday morning.
They are an angry car chase through a bad neighborhood.
They are a hand in hand walk down a long dock on a spring evening.
I’m waxing poetic. That too is the beast.
I’m not an expert in relationships.
In fact, if I was the relationship zoo keeper, all the animals would have escaped or eaten each other.
If I was the relationship scout master, all the kids would fall in the fire.
If I was the relationship chef, all my muffins would be burned.
But, this I know.
Anything in life worth doing, is worth doing with open eyes and a full heart.
If the sum of two parts doesn’t equal a whole, then the equation is flawed.
Sometimes you need to hang in there and weather the storm.
Sometimes you need to cut bait and get off the dock.
There’s someone out there for everyone, I’m told.
The trick is knowing when to hold them and knowing when to fold them.
I know this essay is a run on sentence full of esoteric mumbo jumbo and lots of question marks.
Then again, this piece captures the nuances of a relationship.
Relationships are a lazy hammock tied between two wonderful back yard trees.
It’s a rocky boat, churning on an angry sea.
Relationships.
A dice game in a tough alley.
Apple pie on a window sill at grandma’s house.
A vapor trail in a deep blue sky.
A bee sting, a dog bite, a cactus prick.
Relationships?
No road map. No directions. Just a human feeling that occupies our minds, our hearts and our soul.
Good luck, ya’ll. It’s a brave new world out there.
Was Neil Armstrong that prophetic?
One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind?
What the hell was he talking about?
A moon landing or a date on a Saturday night with that special someone who fires your soul?
Relationships?
Are you knocking on a new door, or getting into the same comfortable bed?
Are you afraid? Are you bored? Are you excited? Is your passion heightened, or do you need a jump start?
There’s no right answer. There only is.
Relationships don’t come easy. Even when they work, they take work.
When one party gives up, then relationships fly the white flag of surrender.
Is there a lump in your throat? Is your heart beating in your ear? Do your toes still curl? Are you looking to escape, catch a flight to the sunshine?
As U2 so eloquently sang “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”
I don’t even know what that means.
Relationships.
Life’s Crazy™