I'm busy watching the really cool "The Secret Life of Us". Very good Australian drama about 20somethings with too much creative energy.
Anyhow there is currently one character who is embarking on a relationship with a married man. Well, okay, she's just backed out, but that's not the point. The guy in question had just explained the things that he had to loose if he pursued anything with her (wife, job, family, basically everything). She asked him if he was prepared to risk all that and he said he would.
It makes me wonder about the way people think when they're right in the middle of being attracted to someone. My memories of the beginning of things is about the BIGness of everything. It takes up mental space and looms large on the internal horizons, pulling everything else out of orbit.
Personally I don't have a moral opinion on whether or not people should avoid new relationships while they are still in an existing one (unless they've made particular promises not to). I think sometimes a new attraction needs to pass a point of no return before the people in question are prepared to take the leap across to it. I also think that sometimes people meet someone who they really want to/should be with.
I doubt that many people do leave an existing thing because of the worth of the new one. Just because the perspective is always so marginalised. That makes me sad somehow. All those beautiful and excellent intentions traded in for novelty. And justified by romance and the ubermotivation of desire.
Posted by carla at August 19, 2003 11:59 PM