WithdrawaLove

Every bit of it, like Schopenhauer once said, "life is pain", and then again, Buddhism had already said so centuries in advance. No matter how ready you think you are, you're always coming up short when it comes to love. What is love, anyway? Hemingway said love was sacrifice. Yeah, there's some of that. I am willing to pay the price. It is cheap, this supposed suffering, for the blessing of our lover.
Schopenhauer also comes to mind, in the porcupine metaphor for love. Schopenhauer said that porcupines would seek one another in cold nights and soon shoot away from one another before stinging one another with their spines. As humans, we seek intimacy and want to belong to something unique, sacred and special, and if that isn't the case, for whatever the case may be, then we have to reassess our approach and take a step back. We ought to break free, if only to to stab one another with the knife of indifference and monotony, with bursts of jealousy and unnecessary drama, a whole lot of inconsistencies that add up to a very unsavory moment. It is best to stop now, and move on. The only thing we owe one another is discretion. And I am thankful for all of the gifts I've received and do not regret too much having failed temporarily. We will get up and go out that door, just one more time. Let's go the local bar and drown our sorrows in beer. Erin ought to be one of the bartenders tonight.
Let's take it slow and do not make a show later on. Drink cautiously, as if she were about to walk in any minute now. Tend to your own demons. Do not call her when you're drunk. Do not call her sober. Call her when the time is right. She will forgive you, and you will forgive her, because the bond that you guys share is stronger than ideas, words, and like a bad habit, it dies hard.
Let's stay still for a while longer. Let's suffocate in peace. Let's withstand the storm.
Serenity will break loose from the cracks in the pavement and flourish all over the walls of this room.
I will venture out into the night.