Rushio and Hesitette: A Cautionary Tale

There once was an ordinary boy, who came upon an ordinary girl.

The boy was immediately captivated and set out to conquer her unknown territories. But the girl, ever a cautious sort, would not relinquish her most heavily guarded treasures all at once. The boy was confused with this creature that was so unlike him. Why wouldn’t she surrender?  Perhaps, he thought, she is not so impressed with the things I carry. He quickly began to hide them away where no one would ever find them.

Feeling lighter, he tried to scale her wall; she panicked and put up a new one, higher still. He decided that there must still be something about him that she could not accept.  More of him was cast aside. Then he knocked upon her gates, demanding entrance. She denied him yet again.

He impatiently waited while she hesitated.

He was about to turn away, but at last she reached out to him…holding just a tiny piece of herself as a trade offering. He reached back, and then recoiled, for he knew his hands were empty. He had locked it all away and now had nothing to give. The girl was interested in growing and he had cultivated naught. There was but an empty void inside of him.

Feeling like a warrior without a sword, the boy retreated, swearing he would never again try his hand at romance. And our damsel in distress sequestered herself to her tower wondering why love continually alludes her.

The door between…closed.

Complete surrender in a relationship creates a winner and a loser.  But neglecting to enter the game at all won’t yield results that are any better. Wouldn’t it be more fruitful to be on the same team, sharing the same goals?

When we are young we often have poetic notions of love swirling around our minds, like a Hollywood movie playing on repeat. It is idealistic and impractical, yet we seek it out just the same. But when we enter into a relationship with these idealist notions in mind, we often lose ourselves in an attempt to “become.” We cast aside our own vulnerable identities and try to be what we perceive to be our partners ideal, fearful that who we truly are might be too much…or not enough at all.

Perhaps the real gift we have to give lies in being brave enough to deeply discern and completely accept your partner; allowing them to be known … and then in return allowing yourself to be known as well.

Once upon a time a lover with a poet’s heart and a dreamer’s soul seemed ideal.  Then the morning came when you realized that all the pretty poems and soulful songs were never about you.  Your partner was waltzing around the room with their ego and you were playing house alone.

Well, I don’t have any desire to play house anymore.

We aren’t all pretty and perfect.  We have cracks, we have blemishes. We have flaws.  And to me, that is where our true beauty comes from.  I don’t want a perfect partner.  I want an authentic one.

To give of myself freely and fearlessly without expectation, to tap into my patience when I feel like being demanding, to be deliberate with my actions yet also know when my hesitation has become stagnation…these are things on which I am learning to build a relationship.

Reality might not always be romantic, and it may not always be gorgeous, but it’s genuine.

And that makes it the most beautiful thing in the world to me.

Welcome to experimental fiction Friday!  What can I say…I was in a mood. So tell me, fair people of the Internets…Are you more of a Rushio or a Hesitette?  Or perhaps you have this love thing down, and you can shed some light on the topic for the folks at home.  And what are you doing this weekend?  Tell me, so that I might live viccariously through you, since I will most likely be studying nonstop.

Twice As Nice

Solo and disenchanted, another notable attempt at coupledom failed to succeed…life got in the way and the fairytale ended before the final chapter. Or did it? Try and try as you might to leave the past in past the Universe seems determined to continually plot out a course of reconnection. So what do you do? Do you fight the inevitable or do you relinquish your free-will and accept your fate?

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