In the recent past, three incidents have occured which got me thinking about the subject of "Love" and what it means. The first was a meal with a friend where she described her last-but-one and last-but-two relationships as "love-less". (Never met the most recent guy.) Both relationships lasted 3 or 4 years and, well, at the time she definitely fooled me. I tried to get to the bottom of what she meant, without asking intrusive questions that might shut her up, and was left with more unasked questions than answers.
The second was this very thoughtful post about love and relationships by my friend, Diana. (Please, go away and read her post and then come back. OK?)
The third was a conversation with another friend, one of my fellow sopranos from choir. She told me about bumping into an old friend recently, a man to whom she was very much attracted. The problem was that he has a very different belief system to her own - something she found abhorrent - and she was having a difficult time getting her head around her abhorrence and why not compromising her own beliefs is important.
Anyway, it all got me thinking...
My philosophy regarding love has always been that it doesn't matter if I end up hurt so long as a) I don't hurt anyone I care about in the process, and b) I can get to 95 and say proudly to myself "Wow! I lived. I had a great time!". If you don't risk love and the pain that comes from broken relationships then you aren't living; you are just existing.
As far as I can tell, real "love" is based on four things:-
- Sexual attraction. Often this is the hardest part. For the last 20
years, I've worked in male dominated environments with some really nice
guys. At times I was single but I've spent most of that time with DH.
From all that time, I can count on my fingers the colleagues whose mere
presence makes/made my pulse race. Pheromones play a large part in
that, the rest is indefinable. And, surprisingly, you can feel the pull even if you're
happily/deeply/enthrallingly in love with someone else.
- Genuine liking. You can like someone, even fancy them, but if there's
something you don't like about their attitudes or opinions it will
niggle and eat away at you. I don't mean they have to like everything
you do, just have considered opinions you can respect. It's how you
instinctively respond to the throw away remarks - don't belittle that.
For instance, on one date, the guy made a throw away remark that made me realise that I couldn't trust him. It's the throw away remarks that
give real clues to someone's character. And if you don't like someone's
character, that's a real turn-off sexually.
- Genuine caring for the
other party. It's about putting the other person's feelings before your
own, say when you don't go to that party because it'd be awkward with
his kids and ex-wife. We've all watched-from-the-sidelines
relationships where one party is really demanding and the other is
always in a spin trying to please them. And that's not a loving
relationship; it's abuse. There's a song Leanne Rimes recorded with
the lyrics "When it's all over, it's not over for you...When you love
enough for both of you, no one else has to do...". It is a song about a
one-sided relationship and when I think about my relationship with
Dumbo, that song always plays in my head. I loved and cared about him,
he only cared about himself/what he could get out of the relationship.
- Trust/honesty. In
order to have trust, both parties have to be honest with themselves and
each other. We all know someone who was so desperate to be in a
relationship that they "settled" for someone who'd "do" and, years
later, when the relationship split up a) they tell you that it was a
loveless relationship and b) nobody-else is surprised.
Also, with the trust thing: I've spent quite a lot of time working away from home, staying in hotels with my male colleagues. (Engineering is like that.) I'll spend those evenings in the bar/restaurant/on a pub crawl/watching sport with the guys, being "one of the lads". If DH didn't trust me, those evenings would leave him sitting at home in an agony of jealousy, which would eat away at our relationship like a cancer. (Incidentally, you know when you're one of the lads when, at the Christmas Party, they do a double take when they see you all glamm'ed up because they've stopped thinking of you in that way.)
And, finally, on the subject of trust. You have to trust yourself that nothing will happen if, when thrown together on an away trip, you or the guy-who-gets-your-pulse-racing are already in relationships with people you love and care about. It's being honest about what is more important to you - a quick fling or your existing relationship. (Also, affairs never work out well. Might as well just enjoy spending the next few years with an added zing in your work relationship.)
- From personal observation, women often confuse lust and sex with "love", while men appear to have the capacity to compartmentalise them into different emotional boxes.
- Women get so hung up on finding Mr Right that they scare guys off and ruin potentially great relationships. Mr Right-for-now is enough. If he's going to turn into Mr Right-forever then it will happen without worrying about it/brooding over it/choosing your engagement ring on some arbitrary timetable.
- On the flip side to that, you get women who spend years with a bloke they like but with whom the lust has worn off very quickly because they perceive it to be better to have someone than no-one. Once upon a time, I worked with an office junior who confided that her new boyfriend had just been arrested for beating up his previous girlfriend. She was so happy to finally have someone in her life that she couldn't understand why we were all so horrified. In order to make her understand, I actually asked her, "do you think so little of yourself that you're happy to settle for someone who beats up his girlfriends?"
- You cannot predict the future. Nobody can. Whatever armchair psychologists say, people do not conform to sets of rules - everyone is different and every relationship must be approached on its own terms. You cannot predict one person's behaviour from how another behaves in similar circumstances. However, if you watch someone's behaviour over a period of time, you may discern a pattern that is applicable to them. (Anyone know a serial committment-phobe?)
- If you actually like someone and fancy them, tell them! Women drop lots of hints but they never actually say what they want or mean. How can the poor bloke decipher whether you like him or not, if you don't actually say it?
- Nothing is scarier to a man than a woman out on the pull, or vice-versa. Seriously, nothing will put a man off faster than being dressed up like a WAG, combing the bar looking for a date, while giving off the aura of "desperate". Want to know how that appears to a man? Think of all the sleazy blokes who try to chat you up doing their best Howard Walowitz. Got it?
Whilst I know anecdotally that some people have had success with internet dating, virtually everyone I know who is in a stable relationship met their partner through work or friends or shared interests. It sounds trite, but if you're looking for a man go where the men are: learn about football and rugby and cricket; play role-playing-games; take up martial arts; join the gym and lift weights. These are places where single men are found. Make friends with men and, sooner or later, you'll meet one who has that certain something and thinks you do too.
(If you're a bloke and you are looking for love and you can read music and pitch a note, for God's sake join a choir. Not only is every amateur choir in the country desperate for male singers, choirs and drama groups are where you'll find the single women. Also dance classes and salsa nights. Trust me on this.)
If you are looking for love, good luck. I hope the above is helpful to you.
- Pam
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