Feeling Dizzy on Dizzy Feelings

Dear Avid Reader,

You know something, getting old isn't that great.

I went to see the new Harry Potter movie this past weekend. It was good. I went with some friends and we all had a good time.

On the way home we began talking about the past and what we did when we were younger. Eventually the conversation led back to our crushes. Of course the more bizarre the ex the better the story.

My wife told a story of an early beau she had. This particular guy, we'll call him Dirk, had a overactive chivalry section in his brain. He believed that every man should carry a sword and be involved in the medieval act of "courtly love".

After a while, my wife decided to break it off and Dirk did not take it too well. He went home and began smashing things. Later on that year, my wife had to call Dirk in order to talk about student council business (they were both on the student council). Dirk answered the phone, heard my wife's voice, handed the phone to a friend of his and began to smash things with his sword. The friend provided my wife with play-by-play on what he was doing.

I can only imagine the scene...

Dirk answers the phone, "Hello."

My wife, "Hey Dirk, it's me. I wanted to discuss this year's Winter Formal."

"One sec."

"Dirk? Hello?"

"Hello?"

"Yes, hello. Who is this?"

"This is Dirk's friend."

"Where's Dirk?"

"Well...right now he's busy. He's trying to pry his sword out of the wall."

"The wall? What happ..."

"Yeah, he tried to kill the wall with a spinning thrust. So, yeah, you know. Oh wait...right now he's trying to climb the couch and...yeah, he just split the ottoman in half."

"Oh my."

"Yeah. You should probably call back later."

Dude's Got Issues

Needless to say, we laughed at my wife's story. She continued to tell us of the obligatory run-in in the hallway they she and Dirk had. They saw each other, and Dirk pressed into my wife's hand a heart shaped piece of faux jewelry. A symbol of his undying affection and an illusion to a past relationship that Dirk had with another girl.

Hilarious.

Don't we all remember those days? Love, betrayal, loneliness, everything seemed so much more epic. It was like each emotion was potent. It was like we would never trust anyone again after we were wronged. We would never love like this love that was over. We would never be understood by anyone else ever in the world.

Things were a lot more extreme in those days. Why not now?

The Kids Aren't Alright

Maybe because we have jobs. We don't have the time to dwell and explore the full breadth of emotion.

I believe that this may be part of it, but I think it's because those emotions were so new. We didn't know how to use them. We saw adults say that they were in love and we wanted to be "in love" too.

Feelings are like drugs, or better yet wine. When we were young, we kept drinking and drinking until we became drunk. And what a heady brew it was.

Now, we are more responsible. We imbibe and sip. We don't need to keep drinking to get the feeling we want. Just a shot'll do.

And it's a good thing. We should be staggering around, three sheets to the wind on emotions. But still, let's remember our foolish youth, and smile. Let's even have a toast to our fomer selves.

First round's on me.

The Next Post Promises To Be Better,

James