Countdown

“If you want a happy ending, it will depend on where you stop the story.” – Orson Wells

Have you ever done something that you knew would end badly and you did it anyway? I think that if we are honest with ourselves we have all done this in one way or another. It could have been as simple as getting burned on a hot stove after you were warned to stay away. Or, it could be something a little more complex like getting caught up in a relationship that’s destined to end. I’m talking about falling for a person that you know is unavailable or unable in one way or another to meet all of your needs in the long term.

Generally most relationships allow you the naïveté of thinking that they will last forever but sometimes you get into situations that you know are going to end. I’ll call it expiration dating. This could be a vacation fling, a Mr. Right Now situation, or maybe even an affair…anything that you know is probably going to lead to a dead end. Do you walk away before it nosedives or do you see it through and hope (against reality) for the best? Who wouldn’t agree that it’s better to go out on top? That it would be better to leave while you have more memories of the good times than the bad. Because even though it’s great right now, we know how these situations play out. I know that there is a countdown.

To get good endings, one has to master the art of letting go at the right time. What is the point of hanging on until the bitter end and letting that ending, cloud everything that has come before that? Things go bad when you hold on for too long. It’s always that last run… that last job… that last reconciliation… that last fight… when shit ends up going left.

Sometimes it’s better to just walk away. You may wonder what if, but in my experience the fantasy of wondering what if is almost always better than the harsh reality of letting these types of situations play out.