Absence makes the heart grow fonder???

I am not a big fan of adages, axioms and other cliches people tend to volley about. I once knew a salesman who loved to throw out the same tired old phrases day after day. It gets old, tiresome.

The worst of these utterances tend to be centered around affairs of the heart. "There's someone for everyone", "There are other fish in the sea", blah blah blah...

Yesterday I ran into someone I haven't seen for a while. Things have changed. Absence makes the heart grow fonder? No it doesn't, at least not for me. Maybe I am not as sentimental as other people but time away doesn't cause me to just dream of getting together again. I spend the time looking at whether it makes sense to meet again. If the separation is due to external influence, maybe it does.

In this case it was a general drifting apart and in the intervening time I realized things were going nowhere anyway. Do I have any hard feelings? No. I am more indifferent than anything. Maybe that's cold but I tire of putting energy into going nowhere.

What about the others? There are other fish in the sea. That's little more than a lousy metaphor. It may be comfort to those who need constant reassurance but it pushes people to rush into looking for replacements for the one they lost.

There's someone for everyone? That's unrealistic. Statistically there are always outliers in any large population. If there were any truth to that statement we would not likely see such a large divorce rate today. Perhaps the main reason the divorce rate was much lower in the past was due to the stigma involved. People stayed, miserable, rather than be branded a divorcee.