Tuesday, August 21, 2018

The Secret Society of the Unhappily Married

I see the hypocrisy and the sadness of so many unhappily married couples. Marriages or relationships where people stay together "for the children" or because they have "invested so many years" or "they are too afraid, too old or unwilling to start over".
I feel sad for these people. Life is so short, yet they are consciously choosing to remain unhappy, miserable, with someone they no longer love or even like.
From my completely amateur estimation, based on couples I know, there are about 75% of pairings in which at least one person is not getting their needs meet.
When the affection, the intimacy and the smiles are gone, why stay?
When you grow older and wiser, when you blossom emotionally and realize that the love has faded to the point that you're merely friends, or worse yet, two people honoring vows that can barely tolerate the others presence, why stay?
Why deprive yourself of happiness, contentment and the possibility of finding a new spark?
It's like so many choose the stability and security of emptiness over the risk of taking a step forward. So many prefer the trap of routine rather than taking a step forward.
I just dont understand it. I really don't.
Maybe it's just me, but the unhappily couples are easy to spot. They never mention their significant other. They aren't sharing photos of the two of them on social media. In private they freely speak of the difficulty, the emptiness. They don't seem to smile much. They are half-empty, living a lie, feeling unloved and alone in their partnership.
What a waste.
How tragic to be unloved and resigned to a sad fate of their own choosing.
I'll never understand it.
I'm not in a relationship but at least I'm not in a dead, a using and unfulfilling one. I'm no longer living a lie and living with someone just to make ends meet. I wasn't afraid to end a decade long relationship that was nothing but an extinguished flame that was secure and financially comfortable.
I refused to live the lie.
I had the emotional intelligence to know I was unfulfilled.
And I was brave enough to walk away.
It's your life. Use it well.

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