Ivy League Clingers

Where do you get your ideas for your "bloggerelle" someone once asked. Where every other writer does, I answered. It's in the air we breathe. Today, while breathing, I saw a strand of ivy on my window sill, one that, unbeknownst to me,  had grown up and around the oak  frame. Wishing to clean it, I decided to take the ivy plant from the sill and wipe down the glass and wood work. Alas, the ivy stalk had sent its tiny sucker-like tendrils right into the wood, thinking to draw nourishment and hydration from the "trunk" of its "tree" just as the same plant does in an outdoor natural setting. I had to tear the small clingers from the wood which was now marred by the innocent root-like growth of the vines. The idea set me to thinking about clingers, human ones. There are people who seem happiest while clinging. They reach out  to try and find someone who doesn't mind their habit of attaching themselves indelibly to someone else. You've seen them in action. I am not a clinger, in fact, I rate myself as being the farthest away from one. My independent spirit would likely be called antipodal. Having once had a dog that persisted in following me everywhere to my great disdain, I discovered that my nature is likely farthest from being called a clinging vine as I gave it to a worthy friend. I know such human clinging vines and they are often sad creatures. Their greatest need is to find a likely subject on which to settle. If they mistakenly happen on someone who has no intention of nurturing their intent, they become morose and desperate and try even harder to find another person to stick on. Once found, to keep their intended, they will do anything, submit to any manner of abuse and lay themselves at the mercy of the clingee. You know the kind. They cannot be talked out of their goals. They think, if I do this or that for this person I cling to, they will become indelibly accustomed to me and will not be able to cast me off. I know dear people who clean house and do their gardens, who spend vast amounts of money on jewelry and travel, who accept any kind of nasty treatment and go back for more. All so not to lose them.The objects of their affections have no intention of re-paying them with the slightest promise of permanency or being, to them,  in the least, faithful. They know that they may do what they will and that the clinger will come back for more mistreatment. Tales of such pathetic relationships are classical. Clingers just can't help it any more than ivy needs to climb.