The Big Green House

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

 

Two little lovebirds sittin� in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

Ever think about your ex(es)? Sure you do; everybody does, from time to time. Even if you�re currently in a very happy relationship, every now and then you�re gonna wonder what�s ol� Fill-In-The-Blank is doin� these days. It�s human nature.

I�ve been pretty fortunate in that I�ve managed to remain on friendly terms with most of my exes. Granted, there are one or two that, if I were to read in the newspaper that they�d been carted off to the wilds of Wisconsin, nailed to a tree and left for the pine martens, I might eventually feel bad for them. Just not right away. On the whole, though, things have been remarkably hostility-free on that front.

I bring this up because I recently had the somewhat odd experience of coaching a former girlfriend through the approach to a possible incipient liaison, providing the male perspective and whatnot. I�ve played �Attorney of Luv� for various female friends on many occasions, but this was the first time I�d ever done so for an ex.

What made it weird wasn�t so much that she was my ex, since we�re very much better friends than we were otherwise. It�s that people in their late thirties still make themselves jump through the same kind of hoops they did back in high school. These are adults we�re talking about here, and they�re still asking their friends �Do you think so & so likes me?�. (Apparently her potential beau had been sounding out her brother.) You�d think that folks would eventually be able to put that kind of stuff behind them & just deal with each other as humans, but I�m here to tell ya that it ain�t so. And I�m not immune to it either. I did the same thing when I first started going out with Science Girl. I guess we�re just hardwired to be insecure that way.

So there�s something for you youngsters out there to look forward to - it never gets any easier.

bmarkey 8/27/2003 08:39:00 PM