OK... So I'm sat on the bus this afternoon on the way home from work and there's a girl talking on her cellphone. Even though I wasn't intending to evesdrop, she wasn't exactly being quiet about it so evesdropping ensued.
It became clear pretty quickly that she was dumping a guy. The conversation went on a long while as he was obviously fighting it. She told him in a very matter of fact, calculated way the reasons for her decision. All of her reasons may have been slightly cliched, but they were all very practical...
"You live in London - that's too far away" [fyi - London is about 40 miles away.]
"I don't want a serious relationship now and that's what it may become."
"You're friends with 'X' and I know 'Y' so imagine the complications."
The list went on, but what she said exactly is not important. The point I am trying to get at is when I got off the bus and as I walked the five minutes or so back to my house I reflected on what I had heard and I felt sad. To begin with I wasn't sure why, but as I pondered it occurred to me that it was the sheer cold practicality of her decision.... and not just her decision, but it was the thought that everyone (including myself) has the propensity to make such rational decisions given the right set of circumstances.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think rational decisions are a bad thing. I quite often give advice to that tune and I have also taken similar.
To come to the point, sometimes I wish we could live in a world where we didn't need to be practical. A world where the important thing is not to consider future complications, but to soak up the glory of the now. In essence, a world of fairytales.
Whatever happened to that world? It must have existed once. It was the world that Jane Austin, Emily Bronte and William Shakespeare grew up in. Whatever happened to Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, or Heathcliff and Cathy? What happened to impracticality being one of the all time greatest turn-ons.
I'm not suggesting that we all suddenly take leave of our senses and plan futures that can never happen. I just think it would be nice sometimes if people were willing to ride the rollercoaster and see where it took them rather than to second guess a future which will undoubtedly be different from how they expect it to be no matter how much in control they feel.
Anyway, this is what my wandering mind made of one half of a telephone call between two people that I have never met and knew nothing about.... so I just thought that I would share.
