The State of Love

I thought of that old Woody Allen movie the other day, where he divides life into two categories, the Miserable and the Horrible. Those are the conditions he sees.

I thought of it because I was discussing with a friend the state of relationships. I have been single a long time. She has been busy with a string of relationships, but not happy.

We talked of a lot of things, but what it comes down to, I said, is the choice of being alone, and possibly lonely, or involved, and generally annoyed.

This annoyed her, which seemed to prove my point. And we're just friends.

"That's what you need," she said. "A t-shirt that says, 'I'd Rather Be Lonely Than Annoyed'."

"Yeah, except I'm not lonely," I said.

My personal option seems best to me, because the involved people, who are annoyed, can also be lonely. The double whammy. But you can't be alone and annoyed - annoyed at someone who doesn't exist? That's not metaphysically possible.

Of course, I suppose there is the state of possibly being happy.

As Damon Runyon says, though, anything in life is 6 to 5 against - and a proposition like happiness, in a relationship, much heavier, no doubt.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog