"What we learn from history is that we don't learn from history." Then there is this:
Some time ago, several couples, all ofd friends, sat around a table laden with good food and drink when the realization settled in on everyone that we were all enjoying our second and even third primary relationship.
Smiles greeted everyone - knowing smiles that represented lifetimes filled with persistence, not giving up, optimistically carrying on. The conversation didn't linger on the number of divorces that were represented around the table but rather on how many times we tried. These were not "twenty somethngs" still trying to figure out how to say "hello". These were veterans. Decorated heroes who have made peace with imperfection, who have looked into the mirror and not turned away - knowing that there is only one truly perfect thing in life - a well made martini, stirred not shaken - by the way.
People are not perfect therefore relationships are not perfect. Hopefully, we who keep voting for relationship will learn from our histories. It's a convenient hope that such is the case. With age comes the problems of aging but also that particularly liberating truth that companionship had been devastatingly underestimated in our early lives.
Appearance, that most fragile of human qualities, doesn't hang around long enough to be the glue that holds us together. Billions are spent in the effort to make it last. Sex, that hormone driven behavior, which in humans is not bounded by estrus or limited much by morality, must come face to face with the irrepressible forces of aging. I have known old men who claimed to be as randy as ever and ready for a hot sheet session at the drop of their drawers. Oddly, they always seemed to be alone - at the moment. Probably means nothing. What I'm saying is that no one gets to that proverbial "ripe" old age without becoming - well, a bit ripe. But isn't that the exact moment when the fruit is most delicious - when love is most profound - when being with someone gives exquisite meaning to your life?
I'm an old man in love with an old woman. I don't think it gets any better.
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