I was so optimistic this morning... and things just never got rolling the way I thought they would.
It got me thinking about early optimism. In the morning, anything is possible. The day could turn out to be the best of your life. But try as you might, until the hours unravel a bit, you can't know in which direction the day may wander.
Isn't this the same as any relationship?
(If you're an optimist,) When you first meet someone, they've never given you any reason to think they are anything other than the greatest person on the planet. You know there must be a real human in there somewhere, but depending on how guarded the individual may be, you may not see it for a while. You like them without any conflicting feelings. And that time, that time when there is no wrong between two people, it is so special. Because it is so rare.
Some of our greatest relationships revolve around love "in spite of." Our friends flake, our families fight, and we love them more than anything. We love them because we know who they are from top to bottom, and the good stuff far outweighs the other stuff.
I can't say either of these stages is "better" than the other. But I find myself wondering how things may be different for us humans if that "perfect idealist vision" stage lasted longer into every relationship. Or what if that phase didn't exist at all? What if we all met each other, had a first fight, and dove into the real world? Do we need to see that pure goodness first in order to love someone?
And another thing--when you catch that first glimpse of reality, the let down can be a big one, a sigh of relief, or all kinds of in between. Maybe it matters how long that first phase went on. Or maybe it all depends on the people, the actions, the reactions, and all of those other things that try as we might, we can't control.
So, what function does that magical morning optimism serve?
Maybe it's just what gets us out of bed each morning...
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