Only Dating Myself

[Brad Rose]

Once, long ago, you and I saw “The Graduate” in a chilly November, mid-afternoon showing at a little theater off Hollywood Blvd.   As we were leaving the lobby, I convinced you to abandon your hapless fiancée, and the next day, when we were married in a tacky little white wedding chapel 300 miles away, I was the happiest man in Las Vegas.

 

Two months later, you deserted me and returned to your “true love,” but after our divorce and all these many years later, I never again re-married.  Occasionally, I still like to watch the classics on the silver screen: Casablanca, His Girl Friday, Gone with the Wind---but they’ve never been the same without you.

Alone, now, in my seat at the Lido, absorbed by the old stories of love and loss, I guess you could say I’m only dating myself.

[Teresa]

Bottom lip puckered...  Very nice, and thankfully fiction.

[Payam Ghassemlou]

I am sure many people can relate to your fictional story. The experience of being by yourself can feel like either painful loneliness or nourishing meaningful solitude. Just like an alchemist, you can turn something like loneliness to something more like solitude. Psychological work and spiritual practices are the fire needed to transform the lead of painful loneliness to golden solitude.

[bolton carley]

you always have that different way of looking at things i adore.

[Brad Rose]

Thanks every one for reading this sad little tale.  Thankfully this is entirely fiction, although sometimes I feel like I AM dating myself.  For example, the other day I made a reference to a scene from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", in which one of my favorite scenes takes place.  I realized about half way through my recounting the scene and the the context, that the person to whom I was talking may never have even heard of this iconic movie!  OUCH!  But of course the title of this piece, "Only Dating Myself" is a double entendre. Referring to being alone and getting old. 

[Robert Morschel]

Poignantly written.  I hope she was miserable as heck with her first love.

[Jeanette Cheezum]

I'm not sure if this is fact or fiction, but it's heartfelt.

[Mike Handley]

Nicely done, Brad.

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

Great last line.  I, too, date myself when I talk about love and loss in old movies.  My kids look at each other with a "huh?" expression.