Sidetracked by the masses!

By this time all of you are probably on the edges of your seats and chewing your nails in anticipation for my next post?! Never fear, the waiting is over. Sorry for only writing again now, but we've had some problems with our internet (nothing new to those of you who are living in Africa or have lived in Africa at one stage or another)

I just want to thank everyone for their comments, at this stage of the project I really appreciate any kind of feedback. It shows me that my writing doesn't fall on def ears, so to speak. If you guys haven't read the comments, please do so now.

(pause for the reading of comments)

Ok! I trust that everyone has read Martins remark about his skateboard hurting him, although he gave it a lot of attention? If not, go read it now.
No more pauses.
Good.
Most probably Martin just made an offhand remark without really thinking about the implications of what he wrote. If you have thought about the implications Martin, I'm sorry for selling you short. Anyway, I was going to discuss the "hurt factor" in relationships at a later stage, but seeing as Martin already mentioned it, we might as well have a look at it now.

Before we continue, I'd like to make a statement:

"No matter how much effort you put into a relationship, you WILL GET HURT at some stage."

Demotivating? I hope not! It is just a fact of life. People will hurt you, objects will cause pain on an emotional or physical level. You will be let down in your relationships. The question is, how do you deal with it? How do you react to that venomous remark your wife made about the food you prepared for her out of pure love? What do you do when your skateboard slides out from underneath you and you end up with a bruised and bloody elbow? This is where the real test of character comes in. This is where we go back to my first post and realize that we need to work on finishing what we started.

Again, there are exceptions. If we are in a bad relationship and second part of that interaction hurt you, walk away. By all means, if you feel that you need to get away from something or someone because it is taking too big a toll on you, do it! There is no reason to stay in a relationship just for the sake of being in a relationship. If you feel that you need to get out, and you can motivate it, get out! Let's use an example.

(The following characters are fictitious. If they resemble any person or situation you are acquainted with, it is pure happenstance.)

Let's use the names John and Sally for the following scenario. John fell in love with Sally and courted her. Sally fell in love with the attention John gave her, and not with John himself. When John asks Sally to be his girlfriend, she says yes because she likes the flowers he brings her and the way he spends all of his money on her.
As the relationship progresses, John can see that Sally has a roving eye as she is constantly flirting with other guys. When he tries to confront Sally about it, she sidesteps his accusation by telling him that, in order for their relationship to work, he needs to spend more time end effort on her, and less on his other activities. John, being the love-struck man that he is, sees this as a reasonable request. To outsiders not paying close attention, it also seems reasonable.
The longer the relationship lasts, the harder John tries to keep Sally's attention and affection focused on him. He becomes obsessed with keeping Sally happy, no matter what. All the while Sally is laughing at him behind his back, flirting with other guys, maybe even doing more than just flirting with some of those guys.
When John finally realizes what is happening, he has already pushed away most of the people around him, he has lost his ability to function on his own. He is basically a shadow of the man he used to be. It  is very difficult for him to get out of this situation, would you agree? Although it is difficult, would you also agree that it is the right thing to do (getting out of the relationship)?

That was a very long scenario, but what I was trying to illustrate is this: When you are in an addictive relationship, you very seldom realize that you are addicted before it is too late. Even if you get hurt all along, you still hang in there because things might get better. Tip, they usually don't.

Wheo, I sidetracked myself after being sidetracked by Martin. All I really wanted to say tonight was that seeing as our entire existence is based on relationships, we need to be able to handle getting hurt.
I don't know about you guys, but I can't think of a single relationship in which I've ever been that I've not been hurt or let down at some point or another. And I know that I have let people down, I've hurt all of the people I love. I've hurt my cat, I've neglected my violin and so the list goes on.

Aaaaah, sometihng just exploded in the background, I'm going to check what happened! Talk later!