unhappy couples; Zelda's exercise, the goddess of unrequited love

Friday, I was hanging out at Bean Hollow for a while, had lunch and was
getting some work done on the book (making notes from Watt's Zen and the
Beat Way, working on my own first chapter - I've decided the "I love being
religious!" story is perfect). Over two hours, I saw four or five couples
with young children come through, and in all but the last, the man seemed
miserable, the couple bickering.

In a strange, almost schadenfreude, way, it was heartening. Lamenting being
single? Look at how many people in relationships are absolutely miserable,
and remember that being alone and being lonely are two different things.

But it was also heartening to see that one non-bickering, indeed maybe even
happy, couple, with their baby. So much so that I had to speak to the
woman, give her my thanks. (It's interesting that when they walked in, the
man was carrying the baby - no stroller, no car seat/baby basket, just a
guy carrying his kid.)

the lies we tell the children about love

"and they lived happily ever after"

but no one lives for ever after

"when true love comes your way, you'll just know"

but tales of divorce and heartbreak put the lie to that...

Zelda's exercise:

make up your own mythological god/goddess/creature, and write a poem
about them or from their point of view

that goddess of unrequited love, Saphira

Aphrodite's lesser known, but much busier, half-sister

sits on a stool in a singles bar

and smites poor innocents with unrealistic crushes

she is more subtle than her nephew Cupid, she uses not a bow and arrows but a small blowgun, disguised now as a cocktail straw

she already has three men in love with the bartender (who is a lesbian in a committed monogamous relationship)

and two women infatuated with the guy in the $500 suit

(who is not just more in love with his pointless job than he could ever be with a woman, but is impotent to boot)

(Saphira, as you may realize by now, is a charter member of Eris's Golden Apple Corps, a dedicated agent of chaos)

she winks at the art student at the end of the bar

he will come back to this same place every Saturday night for six weeks hoping to see her again

She will not appear

but she will definitely be here

oh my yes

she will definitely be here