March 23, 2004

pub wisdom

I decided to walk in to Cambridge this morning to run a few errands and have lunch with my Adorable Intern. It’s funny how attached to her I got in just three months. But I knew when I met her (and I remember telling a friend this), that she was someone I would really like. Someone I would really get.

We sat at a rickety table in a dark pub between Harvard and Central Squares. She told me she quit the Monkey Firm that morning; I told her I wasn’t surprised. How fun could that place be without me?

By the end of our roasted potatoes, the subject had somehow turned to marriage. I shook my head thinking about the conversation I’d just had with my sister that morning about the current status of my own parental figures. (I’ll let my family keep a wee bit of their dignity and spare you all the Jerry Springer-like details.)

“I don’t know if I believe in all of that anymore.”

“Sure you do,” she said. “Just not their version of it.”

When did they start making 21 year olds so wise?

Posted by This Fish at March 23, 2004 11:00 PM
Comments

Hm...I really like that.

Posted by: Alicia at March 23, 2004 11:38 PM

Yeah, that's usually the problem. Since it's what we see - especially as children - we assume that's how all families are. Good thing it doesn't have to be some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Posted by: GrumpyBunny at March 24, 2004 09:51 AM

I justified a lot of my last relationship on my folks---figuring that "fighting a lot" is just par for the course in any long-term relationship.

Well, my folks split up in December, and I have a better sense now that there are other paths to be taken, and better ways to go about tolerating one another. Compromise and hurt are always gonna be there in some fashion, it should just be on your own terms more so than our parents'.

>

cheers!

Posted by: ryan at March 24, 2004 02:23 PM

i like that too. i going to have to write that down. im getting married soon and im having a hard time with it. my mom and step-dad divorced after being married for 18 yrs. how does that happen? my fiances parents had a tumultuous relationship, violent and sad. i had all these ideas about marriage and lately they have been fading and im really trying to grab them as fast as i can before they disappear.

Posted by: kristin at March 24, 2004 05:25 PM

Yes, us 21 year olds come out of the woodwork on occasion to enlighten anyone who's willing to listen to our 'sometimes intelligent' words of wisdom. :0)

Posted by: Heather at March 26, 2004 01:49 PM