[hippieflowergirl]

Originally Posted by SassyLeo

Interesting when I read the part about being a "cop out", etc, I actually started thinking about how I have a hard time with the concept of being with someone forever. I've never been able to say it to anyone. Like "I will love you forever". I think it is unfair to promise "forever" and maybe "unconditional love". When I hear people say "we will be together forever", my gut reaction is not "woohoo, yay for you", it is more like: "right" *eyeroll*. Maybe I am cynic or a realist or whatever you want to call me... but I'm not sure I'm a subscriber. Life happens, people change, feelings change, etc. If I promise someone -forever- and then it turns out to be -forever for 5 years- there is this sense of having lied, or letting someone down or betrayal.

I'd rather say "I'm in *this* as long as we are happy and it *works*

People have told me that this school of thought is kind of like a "cop out"

Maybe it is...I'm on the fence.

i smell what you're stepping in! (sorry, i'm enamored of that phrase these days) i dont know that "unconditional" is the same as or equals "we'll be together forever". i'm a great believer of the "as long as we're happy and it works" thing. when people break up it's not always because the love is gone. right?

i love fairly easily but i only fell in love...hard....exactly one time...and not in my youth either. it was earthshattering, gut-wrenching, heart-pounding, mind blowing, direction-reversing, insane, perfect, eyes-wide-open-to every flaw (for us both), forward my mail to crazytown love....and it's only happened that once. i am still in love that deeply and with that much devotion...and we are not "together" in except on that cellular level that shuttles you into perfect sync everytime we talk. no amount of hurt or distance or separation will ever change that for me.

that's unconditional for me.

the only other example i can think of is a woman i know whose son is a serial rapist. he's in jail for the third time, i hope forever. she hopes so too because his brain is so damn sick that she fears for people when he is not. and she loves him. she never wants to see him outside a jail. but she loves him like crazy.

that blows my little love out of the damn water. i freakin' want to grow up to be her. i want to know...i mean to know without exception...what it is like to love that perfectly.