Various Couplethinking Responses

[ssk7882 <skelkins@attbi.com>]

Bit of a catch-all here.

Pippin wrote:

> (Who is The Elkins, what is she? And who can comprehend her?)

LOL!  Oh, dear.  I'm not really *that* bad, am I?  Perhaps I need
to take a course in technical writing?

> But seriously, I think that many people aren't as compartmentalized 
> as The Four Loves philosophy implies. I think many people really 
> can't feel any kind of love strongly without arousing a sort of 
> echo from the others. 

You know, I wonder if that is it?  It certainly isn't the case for 
me -- I love my housemate as deeply and utterly as I can imagine
loving anyone, yet feel absolutely no sense of romantic or erotic
desire for him at all -- but maybe I'm just freakish that way?

Certainly if this is true, then it would explain much of human
behavior that I confess often leaves me feeling simply perplexed
and irritable.

At any rate, I think that I will try to take that possibility into 
account when dealing with the mystifying and annoying behavior of
homo sapiens in the future.  Whether true or not, it *works* as an 
explanation, which is valuable to me.  So thank you, Pippin.


Acire wrote:

> My mother constantly tells me that if I am not more romantic 
> towards my boyfriend, I will end up alone and bitter...

<winces>

Youch.  You too, eh?  I had a college lecturer once who told me that 
I was an angry young woman and "like all angry young women, you will 
die bitter and alone."  Now, isn't that just lovely.

My parents, on the other hand, insisted that I would end up badly not
because I was angry, but rather, because I was selfish, manipulative, 
inconsiderate and ungrateful, as well as probably incapable of real 
love; because I take, take, take, while never giving back a thing in 
return; and because while I might be able to fool some of the people 
some of the time with my appealing (yet fundamentally shallow) 
charismatics, in the end everyone would see through my little scam 
and perceive me for the errant fraud that I really am.

<looks around household, checks watch.  Raises eyebrow.  Shrugs.>

Well, would you look at that!  It really *is* taking them a long time
to catch on to my little game, isn't it?

I'm taking a light tone here, but those kinds of parental scripts 
really can leave marks, I know.  Don't let them scare you too much, 
okay?


Ebony wrote:

> If there is any area of friendship I'd most like to experience, 
> it's a completely platonic relationship with a straight guy.  

Interesting, that, because for whatever strange reason, the vast 
majority of my completely platonic relationships have always been 
with straight guys.  It's friendships with straight women that I've 
not had much experience with in the past, which is part of what 
makes this on-line community so very exciting for me.  


Elkins