Dear Romance,
Thanks for everything you've been to me, everything we've been through together, but I want to let you know that we're through.
I was thinking today about what you really are: you are a drug our bodies feed us when we are in the throes of young love in order to convince us to marry or otherwise couple up and procreate, thus ensuring the survival of our bloodlines and the species as a whole.
Thanks for that, but it is not relevant to me anymore in my life. I am already married and have been for 7 years. We are not deliriously happy, but we are happy enough, and I don't really want to start all over again and try to find Mr Right, the man who makes me feel those butterflies in my stomach, because you know what Romance? That man doesn't exist. He only exists for a few months or a year at most, and then he becomes the regular man: slightly overweight, boring and ordinary, not-so-romantic anymore, not-so-exciting anymore, not a person to idolize or obsess over, just a person. A person who works, who eats, who sleeps, who has a personality other than "amazing."
And the killer is, Romance, you don't know until it's too late whether this regular ordinary man we were once infatuated with, is the man who will take care of us when we need it, drive us to the dr when we need them to be there, who will hold our hand while we face our fears or have babies, or who will agree to adoption because he loves us enough, or the man who will die for us or kill for us if necessary.
Romance, you don't tell us these things up front. That's your problem. You make us think that YOU are where it's at- the butterflies, the sparks, the "chemistry." Well guess what Romance? The only chemistry that is real is that our bodies are getting older and less able every day and if we follow YOU and your allure we will end up old and alone and realizing wait- I have been living in a state of perpetual heartbreak or euphoria or both and I have not accomplished anything except being in love or out of love or confused about love.
That's not a fate I want to sign up for Romance.
So goodbye. Have fun with the teens and the college kids. I'm done.
