Humans are Complicated (or The Pentagram, Part II)
Human beings are not simple. They are complicated and their relationships are convoluted. And if there is a god in a heaven somewhere in a direction humanity has arbitrarily deemed "up there," well, then I'm sure the stuff that we humans spin makes that deity's eyes roll sometimes.
Back in university I got myself into a little social jam I like to refer to as "the Pentagram." It's a nice name - catchy with a little bit of shock value! And it basically refers to the fact that in a group of 5 otherwise normal and, I'm sure, nice people, we had all become so intertwined in our own relationship swapping fiasco that a backwoods incest supporter from Arkansas would have surely looked at the five of us and said "Peeeyoooo! Man, that ain't right!"
In fact, to get out of the Pentagram, my girlfriend K______ (not part of the Pentagram, by the way...) had me draw out on a piece of paper everybody involved and everybody's relationship to everyone else. And a diagram with five points, all inter-connected, ends up looking a lot like, you guessed it - a pentagram. The shock of it was enough to get me out of it. For the better, I have always felt. Thank you K______!
And lucky, lucky, lucky me that these were disposable friendships and relationships -- the kinds that develop quickly over the course of a few months and seem much deeper than they are in reality. Lucky me that these were not the kinds of childhood ties or eternal bonds I could not extricate myself from. I slipped quietly out the back door one night. No one said goodbye, and no one really missed me when I was gone. Phew!
Funny how life repeats itself. It's been the better part of a decade since I jumped out of the pentagram, vowing never to enter such murky social waters again, if I could help it. But hey, humans are complicated. And so here I am back in a remarkably similar situation. New players this time. More of them actually. Well, fewer boys, more women. (Drat - that puts me at a disadvantage right off the bat!) And it's not technically a pentagram this time, it's like some kind of convoluted Logic Game chart on acid!
But all in all, it feels much the same. A lot of he said, she said. A pair of best friends swapping up women when it suits them. (One of them a master in the art of manipulation if you ask me. But I'm admittedly not objective.) An ex-girlfriend who won't disappear. A current girlfriend with a real mean streak who has no time of day for the ex-girlfriend. Unrequited love. And some mild substance abuse, which never makes things easier.
Over a month ago I woke up and realized what was going on and thought "Dear lord, where are my sneakers it is time to GO!" And I tried to do exactly that. I tried to slip out the door in the middle of the night and hoped that nobody would miss me after I was gone. One would think I'd get better at these things with age. Alas no.
I still know exactly what's going on with this crazy crew. The ties cannot be cut altogether. 'Why?' you ask...
Wait for it...
Because one of the lucky gals is not only my bestfriend, she is my roommate.
Crap.
Back in university I got myself into a little social jam I like to refer to as "the Pentagram." It's a nice name - catchy with a little bit of shock value! And it basically refers to the fact that in a group of 5 otherwise normal and, I'm sure, nice people, we had all become so intertwined in our own relationship swapping fiasco that a backwoods incest supporter from Arkansas would have surely looked at the five of us and said "Peeeyoooo! Man, that ain't right!"
In fact, to get out of the Pentagram, my girlfriend K______ (not part of the Pentagram, by the way...) had me draw out on a piece of paper everybody involved and everybody's relationship to everyone else. And a diagram with five points, all inter-connected, ends up looking a lot like, you guessed it - a pentagram. The shock of it was enough to get me out of it. For the better, I have always felt. Thank you K______!
And lucky, lucky, lucky me that these were disposable friendships and relationships -- the kinds that develop quickly over the course of a few months and seem much deeper than they are in reality. Lucky me that these were not the kinds of childhood ties or eternal bonds I could not extricate myself from. I slipped quietly out the back door one night. No one said goodbye, and no one really missed me when I was gone. Phew!
Funny how life repeats itself. It's been the better part of a decade since I jumped out of the pentagram, vowing never to enter such murky social waters again, if I could help it. But hey, humans are complicated. And so here I am back in a remarkably similar situation. New players this time. More of them actually. Well, fewer boys, more women. (Drat - that puts me at a disadvantage right off the bat!) And it's not technically a pentagram this time, it's like some kind of convoluted Logic Game chart on acid!
But all in all, it feels much the same. A lot of he said, she said. A pair of best friends swapping up women when it suits them. (One of them a master in the art of manipulation if you ask me. But I'm admittedly not objective.) An ex-girlfriend who won't disappear. A current girlfriend with a real mean streak who has no time of day for the ex-girlfriend. Unrequited love. And some mild substance abuse, which never makes things easier.
Over a month ago I woke up and realized what was going on and thought "Dear lord, where are my sneakers it is time to GO!" And I tried to do exactly that. I tried to slip out the door in the middle of the night and hoped that nobody would miss me after I was gone. One would think I'd get better at these things with age. Alas no.
I still know exactly what's going on with this crazy crew. The ties cannot be cut altogether. 'Why?' you ask...
Wait for it...
Because one of the lucky gals is not only my bestfriend, she is my roommate.
Crap.
posted by nerdifer at 10:45 a.m.
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