Academic Achievement Was Something I'd Always Sought

I'm 38 And I'm Single, And I'm Having My Most Intense And Gratifying Relationship With A Dog. But We All Learn About Love In Different Ways, And This Way Happens To Be Mine.

The Freedom To Choose...means The Freedom To Make Mistakes, To Falter And Fail, To Come Face-to-face With Your Own Flaws And Limitations And Fears And Secrets, To Live With The Terrible Uncertainty That Necessarily Attends The Construction Of A Self.

But Then The Wine Came, One Glass And Then A Second Glass. And Somewhere During That Second Drink, The Switch Was Flipped. The Wine Gave Me A Melting Feeling, A Warm Light Sensation In My Head, And I Felt Like Safety Itself Had Arrived In That Glass, Poured Out From The Bottle And Allowed To Spill Out Between Us.

Love—the Desire To Love And Be Loved, To Hold And Be Held, To Give Love Even If Your Experience As A Recipient Has Been Compromised Or Incomplete—is The Constant On The Continuum Of Hunger, It's What Links The Anorexic To The Garden-variety Dieter, It's The Persistent Pulse Of Need And Yearning Behind The Reach For Food, For Sex, For Something.

Fall In Love With A Dog, And In Many Ways You Enter A New Orbit, A Universe That Features Not Just New Colors But New Rituals, New Rules, A New Way Of Experiencing Attachment.