That wistful feeling

You know that wistful feeling that comes over you when you bump into that wonderful girl whom you were crazily in love with in 9th grade and see her happily (or less so) married with 2 kids in tow. Depending upon what she is doing (and sometimes on whom she has married) she might get the same wistful feeling. Who is it who said "Of all the words in the world, the saddest are these - It might have been...". Well - I disagree.

Huh. I can imagine my puzzled readers (if there are any left out there still who follow me as erratically as I blog) wondering about what happened to the dyed in the wool romantic. I just happen to be the same. As romantic as ever. And that is precisely why I think that the whole beauty of the feeling lies precisely in the dream never having been realized. If she had been available, or had loved you then instead of later, things would probably have been disastrous. Or maybe, just normal. Boring old normal life. That might have been it. But now you got this wonderful feeling that is a lump in your throat when you meet by chance on the street. Or that exchange of meaning through your eyes with which you reassure each other of your current happiness. Oh - it'd never do to confess otherwise even if it were so. Old lovers are best left there - in the past. They can only come into the present as chance acquaintances that you meet every few years ever so briefly. Any more and your memory of each other is likely to be tainted forever by the current picture of the slightly overweight 30-something who has settled into domesticity.

ubergeek, the