Cynthia was complaining to me that she had girlfriends who were having āall the funā in life.
āWhat kind of fun?ā I asked.
āThey have boyfriends all the time, and they talk about having sex, going dancing and drinking, stuff like that.ā
āIt really does sound like fun, doesnāt it?ā
āYes.ā
āFrom time to time it actually is,ā I said, ābut itās like stacking blocks.ā
āWhat do you mean?ā
āHave you ever stacked blocks?ā
āSure, as a kid.ā
āAnd itās fun. The pile gets higher and higher, but eventually what ALWAYS happens?ā
āThe pile falls over.ā
āYeah, it always does. Same with the kind of āfunā your friends are having. Ever noticed that they rotate through boyfriends?ā
āYeah, they do.ā
āSo the stack falls over even faster than you think. They have fun, it wears off, they crash, and then they start all over again. But the stack never stays up. Itās a pretty precarious and frantic way to live.ā
In the absence of Real Love, Imitation Love can seem pretty great. But it always, always collapses under the effect of its own weight and instability. Why would we ever spend our time in pursuit of anything that always fails in the end?