Let's Only Date Grown-ups.

[emanix]

tacit spotted this in my paper journal back in February and asked me to post it so he could link to it. I only just remembered it today:

Let's only date grown-ups.
Here is what is mine, there is what is yours.
This is what I would like, and this is what I will give.
This is what I won't, can't, don't give.
Where is your beginning and what is your end?
Love is not give and take, love is give and give.
I give, and you give, and we draw lines in ourselves where we stop.
I draw a line here, do you see it?
It's the place just before it hurts me to give,
because I know, if you love me, if you love the way I do, this is where you would beg me to stop.
And if you don't, if you wouldn't, you are worth nothing further.

Comments

[terriaminute.livejournal.com]

LOVE (Thank you Franklin for requesting this!)

Key phrase: "if you love the way I do" - I cannot believe how many people do not realize just how differently love can happen. Humans are wildly variable, and we do not mesh well merely because we fall in love. Love is not enough. It can take some hard work to knit two ways of loving into one relationship that works over time.*


*Bizarrely, this is all observation. My two (very) long term relationships have been remarkably trouble-resistant. The two "um-friends" relationships, ditto. :) Not luck, either, but all me, being very attentive to what I need and what I can give. The luck is in avoiding love that would hurt me. Powerful sense of self preservation right here. ;)