..my weakness is strong

‘Love is so short and forgetting is so long’

Pablo Neruda




People say it's not what happens in your life that matters, it's what you think happened. But this qualification, obviously, did not go far enough. It was quite possible that the central event of your life could be something that didn't happen, or something that you thought didn't happen. Otherwise there'd be no need for fiction, there'd only be memoirs and histories; what happened - what actually happened and what you thought happened - would be enough.

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi

Geoff Dyer






It seems ironic that when people fall in love, no justification for their attachment is necessary. It is accepted that the process by which we are drawn to another is mysterious and beyond explanation. People talk about physical attraction, shared interests, some mysterious 'chemistry' that pulls them together and makes them decide to share their lives. The people around them accept this and go ahead with the elaborate and expensive ceremony that will celebrate the beginning of their lives together. When, on the other hand, people fall out of love, the demands for an explanation are insistant: What happened? Who's at fault? Why couldn't you work it out?
"We didn't love each other anymore" is not, in most cases, a sufficient response.

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart

Gordon Livingston, MD