Originally posted on February 11, 2009
A friend said to me recently when I asked him how it was going with this new guy he's dating: "Well, he's a bit like a Japanese puzzle box"....
Ah, Valentines Day. Though my keester has clearly missed the aim of Cupid's arrow this year, I'm not without a few stellar V.D.'s under my belt. You see I'm all about the love. So about it that I'm determined to keep doing it until I get it right!
Inspired by a particularly painful breakup [that turned out to be less heart crushing than it was a waffle-stompper to my ego], I've spent the last year on what I've been calling my "man sabbatical". Don't laugh, I'm being serious here. At first I strictly forbade myself from dating, but that didn't last long. McKinleys are born flirts. It's something that starts to manifest just before teething, and fully develops at the onset of puberty.
Although a couple of charming devils nearly foiled my attempt to spend " a year without entanglements", I did make it. As I hoped I would, I learned a few things in this year of redirected energy. One interesting self-observation is that I am myself, more complicated than I realized. Not complicated in a "watch out, he needs a 12-Step program" way. Just a little more complex in regards to love. Is it possible that I too, am a bit of a puzzle? All those years I thought I was simply floating through the universe, waiting to hook the right star, making my constellation complete....WHATEVER MICHAEL!
But taking a year off from "love" definitely forced me to take a deeper look at love, in all it's forms. This time of introspection fostered a new reality for me, and gave me a fresh perspective on the question that the human race been asking since the dawn of time: "What in the hell are we all doing here?!"
I've decided my answer is love. It's our soul's purpose. The only reason at all for our existence is to learn how to love. To master all forms of it. In life, this is our COURSEWORK...
The love between parents and children, brothers and sisters, friends, the friends we think of as parents or siblings, sometimes strangers, even our enemies, and of course- ourselves. In the end, projects that are done for extra credit, papers we aced, and all other measurements of "success" will be null-in-void; our grade based solely on one thing: How well did we love?
So far, I'm coasting through with a B.
Cherrie put it perfectly when she used real estate as an analogy for love. "You're either a renter, or a home owner. I'm tired of apartment life, I wanna live in a house"!
Now that my sabbatical is over, I realize that it's futile to avoid the inevitable.
I'm a lover of love and always will be! I've got people to meet, and love to give! It's time to start shopping for real estate, and most of all, improve my grade!
Besides, I love a good puzzle, don't you?
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