What happened in between, the last part (seriously)

In order for a relationship between two people to survive, the key is for both of them to keep moving forward.

Life and history are full of little ironies. America's nationwide prohibition of alcohol ended because of a vote in Utah, best known for its population of teetotaling Mormons. The first and last men to die building the Hoover Dam were a father and son, exactly 13 years apart. Jesus of Nazareth, a peaceful man and carpenter, was nailed to a wooden instrument of torture and death. In 1854, the U.S. brought Japan out of isolation with a fleet of ships; 87 years later, the Japanese returned the favor. Henry Ford once proclaimed history was bunk, yet he is now inextricably part of it thanks to his advocacy of the assembly line and a livable wage. And my romance with the woman who said those words up above died in part because she was herself unable to move forward.

What happened in between, part 2

Love is blindness, I don't want to see
Won't you wrap the night around me
Oh, my heart
Love is blindness…
—U2, "Love is Blindness"

Bono had a point when he wrote that song back around 1990. Love, or being in love, blinds you to (some of) the realities of your relationship with that person, and yet not seeing those realities is exactly what you want. You just want to stay blissfully ignorant, awash in all of the positive sensations. And for the last year Roxanne and I were together, I think that's pretty much how I was: blind and enjoying it. Because in hindsight, I see now there were a couple of moments well before the breakup when I should have realized that the last words of our story were not going to be "…and they lived happily ever after."

(Side note: check out both the original version of that song, from their 1991 masterpiece Achtung Baby, and Jack White's cover from the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby.)

What happened in between, part 1

I went from April 2012 to August 2013 without writing an entry here, and kind of a lot happened in that gap. Here are some of the highlights…and lowlights.