The One That Got Away

by Mike Gayle

I believe people can like each other and want to spend time with each other . . . but all that stuff about being together forever? I don’t know, it feels a bit like a work of fiction, a lie we tell ourselves to make life more palatable. A way of explaining the kind of temporary chemical craziness that comes over people when they get together. It’s just molecules breaking apart and forming new bonds, it’s hormones playing tricks on us to fool us into keeping the species alive, and sooner or later it wears off.’

What is it about people getting all philosophical, instead of just getting on with the basics of being happy?

You see, that’s the problem with “what ifs”, they work both ways, so if you think about it, they sort of cancel each other out. And all that’s left, all that matters, are the choices we make, choices that don’t come with a single assurance that they’re not going to end in disaster. Is there a chance that things might not work? Absolutely. But is there a chance they might? Most definitely. It’s like something my dad once told me, something he read in a self-help book: life doesn’t come with any guarantees, all you get – all any of us get – is what we get. So, in the end, all you can do is put your best foot forward, and keep doing that ’til the day you die.’