Encountering Paolo...

I was walking around Powerbooks (which disappointed me for the first time because I left without buying anything...) when I saw a display featuring Paolo Coelho's new book. I forgot the title. It was a love story - as all stories are, I think. It was about a married couple. They weren't your conventional married couple. They had worlds outside of their marriage. The thing is, the wife disappeared and then the husband searches for her. He meets this guy who may or may not have been the wife's lover... See, that's where I have a problem with it.

I'm not anti-marriage. I think it's a commitment that should be made by people who are so damn sure of living with this person for the rest of their lives - come what may. I don't condone cheating. And you only cheat when you're in a committed relationship. What could be more committed than a marriage?

I guess I'm too idealistic to read a novel that deals with adultery. I swear! I'm a literature major and I've read all the books required by my professors, but I always dislike the ones that deal with adultery. I have this predisposition of not liking the story when it deals with subjects such as adultery and unfaithfulness. I'd rather read a gory graphic novel.

That's the biggest sin for me - more than murder, rape, treason or thievery. It's a betrayal of everything you hold dear. It could drive you to murder, rape, treason... (thievery as well?) I've never had anyone cheat on me (seeing as I was never in a relationship). But the idea evokes such complex emotions that I don't even want to analyze.

That's why I'm into friendships. Not the kind you make when you meet someone new. The kind that started when you were kids until adulthood. I'm more into friendships than family (my parents are my friends as well so...) It's kind of difficult to cheat on a friend.

How do you cheat on a friend? Not by being friends with someone else. Because it doesn't work that way. When you become friends with someone else, that someone else becomes friends with your other friends (unless, of course, they hate each other on sight). It's an open relationship with no opportunity to cheat.

Sometimes you go for years without contact save the occasional email and text message, but the moment you see each other, it's like - well, meeting an old friend - because you are meeting an old friend. Almost all the grudges and the fights and the cold shoulders are not forgotten, but forgiven. They're chalked up to things you're going to rehash as funny memories.

Sigh. I miss my friends.