Love Times Two

How many times have marriages broken because one of the partners was "unfaithful"? While it sounds immoral or insane or insensitive to say that people can love more than one  at a time, and mean it sincerely, it is a hard-to-take reality. Why can't we love more than one? There are many forms of love and Morality didn't invent them. There's proof. When it is said that most marriages are not entirely perfect, especially after the children are grown, and too often before, there must be a truth there somewhere. We don't like to look at it, and most people cannot, objectively, but it happens so often that it's impossible to deny or ignore. Most marriages are sacrosanct and each partner is entirely faithful, but many are not able to boast that advantage. Monogamy is the plan for a lot of logical reasons, if logic can be applied to human behavior. The need for children to have two parents is one reason used for why that logic, even though there are many excellent one-parent families. Ideally, we love only one other person in a lifetime, but we are real people, not ideals. We are curious and adventuresome creatures that love to speculate and dream, and all too often, scheme. There comes a time in a union when one or the other, or both partners, begin to wonder what they have missed.  While they are content and happy in their present state, they consider it, since life is very long and not often, perfectly satisfying. It's then that things go off center and "mistakes" are made, or perhaps deliberate unfaithfulness, ensues. Marriages or other similar love unions, are perfectly marvelous at the start, but as the worldly realities enter the picture, the scenario can change and become challenging. A good union can withstand the pressures and demands of day-to-day life, but not all of them are strong enough. To make a life-long promise is the goal, but as time goes on, the routines of even a good partnership have trouble withstanding  the bonds that should wrap them in solid security. Fortunately, that good partnership has the ability, if found, to get through the bad times when one or the other side, has ventured off, and made the mistakes. Its bonds are strong enough to hold, no matter what. That's a good marriage or union, and one that is all the stronger for its forgiving qualities. The trust may never be the same, but love is bigger, and with it, these unions are able to step over  big hurdles and decide to push on and preserve what means more.  In the event that it can't, at least all has been done to make it work : supreme efforts, communications of real feelings and understanding while, in the end, the union had to be abandoned.  I hear so many people say that they wish they had made a bigger effort to keep what they once had and miss terribly. Sadly, it seems, distance perspective, while clarifying, can be a cruel insight.