In the water

While I am short on beliefs of faith or spirituality, I tend to think that we are somehow connected to each other and to the other creatures and to the plants and to this planet. I don't know what that connection is, but I think it exists.

For example, when I see misery around me, I feel miserable.

Maybe this explains why so many people like to move out to the suburbs; they like to pretend poverty and crime doesn't exist. If they see it, they have to feel it.

But, it is also true that when one friend gets pregnant, pregnancy tends to spring up like an epidemic. Like it is "is the water," as the old saying goes. When most of your friends are married, the one single friend finds that she feels pressure to find a partner.

It's like our yawns. Our behaviors seem to be contagious.

So, when people I love split with their loved ones, I find myself looking at my own relationship and hoping that I'm not next in line. For, with all our problems and with all the distance that is about to be between us, I'm not ready for a break up.

For those splitting: I send you my love and support.

For the rest of us: stay away from the water.