Dear Cary,
I have been involved with a woman for one and a half years. She is well mannered, dresses nicely, has style, is extremely intelligent, and is a stunning beauty. We also share many views on the world and, for example, an obsession with the same country that we would both like to emigrate to. We are the kind of couple where everybody turns around to tell us how beautiful we look together.
This woman has given me some of the best times of my life. I loved and trusted her with all my heart. But I got burned, and badly. A description of the depression I've gone through would not fit into one letter. She has given me some of the most beautiful times of my life and she has been the cause for the most depressing and sad times that I ever had to endure. She abused my trust, betrayed me, lied to me, dumped me for someone else. That was in the middle of our relationship and it's the cause for our breaking up for over a month.
But I just couldn't let go. When she told me that she still had feelings for me and that maybe we could make it work, I immediately went for it, despite much advice to the contrary from friends and family. And it worked well, after a time even very well.
And then it turned back into a disaster. As we both went off for university, she demanded attention that she knew I couldn't potentially give her and compromises that she knew I couldn't make. I tried very hard to make it work, to convince her that I loved her. Her reaction was indifference. She was just interested in her new friends, her new life -- without me. That was last October, which is when I broke up with her, again.
Even after weeks, I thought of her every day, feelings alternating between anger and longing. I didn't talk to her for over two months -- didn't help. As I was finally starting to get a handle on things, she called me again and said that she didn't want to lose somebody she once trusted so much, that she'd like to keep me at least as a friend.
When we met again, all the signs were still there. The looks, the occasional hand on the other's leg. The close-to-infinite goodbye hug. We started talking on the phone and e-mailing on an almost daily basis. Oh my god, I was back in her power again.
I can't pull myself out of it, even though she's been very ambivalent. One day, she tells me how much she misses me, that if I asked her to marry me, she'd say yes. The next day, she doesn't even answer the phone. Then again, she blames me for everything that ever went wrong in our relationship.
Maybe this is just because there are hardly any girls in my small university in this small, depressing town? Maybe it's because the advice to get myself somebody else is not an option?
Why can't I let go? I feel like Odysseus passing the sirens. She draws me to her with her magical song and whenever I come near her, I get smashed on her deadly rocks. How can I escape her? I don't think stuffing wax into my ear would work, much less having my friends tie me to the mast. But what can I do?
Bound by Love
Dear Bound by Love,
What Odysseus did may sound impossible or useless if taken literally. But metaphorically speaking it's exactly what you have to do. Odysseus had his mates tie him to the mast. You need to have your friends tie you to a decision. Swear an oath to banish this woman from your life, and have your friends swear to hold you to it.
Now, Odysseus earned his crew's affection and obedience through heroism. Few of us command such power over men. Moreover, few will truly grasp what you are asking. You may have several "friends" who enjoy your company and think you are a good guy, but to do what you require takes a maturity that doesn't always show on the surface. So choose one person, and choose wisely. You have to place complete trust in this person.
Make a signed, written agreement. Say that if you should announce that you're going to see her, they have permission to hold you down, slap you silly, and lock you in your room. Promise not to press charges if they should abduct you in a car and tie you to a tree in the woods. This is what it will take.
You're in this woman's power. We don't have to talk about why, for now. We just have to recognize reality. You're in her power. Her power is in her presence and in her beauty. It's a delicious power, but for you it's deadly. The only way to get out of her power is to get out of her presence. Don't talk to her, don't look at her. If you find yourself thinking about her, fine. No man could keep you from doing that. Let yourself think about her, but only as one regards an object in the mind. Do not allow yourself to speculate about her. Get my drift? Whenever you regard her in your mind, be sure there is a fence around her. Do not think about the ways in which next time it might be different. Do not take down that fence.
Furthermore, if you regard her in your mind, regard her only from the rear, as though she is receding from view. Do not look at her face. Do not let her eyes fall on you. Do not let her approach. Only regard her as an object receding into the distance. If you imagine her eyes looking at you, you will be in her power again.
Face it: You're addicted to her, OK? So you can't have her anymore! Not even a little piece! You're done! You're through! It's over, soldier!
As to why you are in her power: There is something of narcissism in this -- for instance, in the pride you take in being seen as a stunning couple, and in the way she so pleasingly mirrors yourself in her thoughts and ambitions. Odysseus was not a narcissist; he was a warrior; he knew himself and he knew the other, both as enemy and lover. He knew his weaknesses and took precautions. His problem with the sirens was a problem of temptation, not narcissism. But narcissism appears to be the focus of your heroic struggle. So consider that you cannot look away from her because she is an image of your own beauty. Think of her as a reflection of yourself, and consider that the reason you long for her so is that you long for yourself, your own beauty. It's an unfathomable paradox, this narcissism thing ... but maybe that tear that Narcissus sheds, the tear that disrupts his perfect reflection in the river, perhaps that is what is needed here. Perhaps what that myth is saying is that rescue -- death in Narcissus' case, but we needn't be so literal -- comes through the power of emotion to disrupt the perfect reflection: when through long unrequited desire for perfection we finally break down and feel the tragic impossibility of such a union, the power of that emotion shatters the entrancing image, and we are free. Just think of Narcissus' death at that point as the death of the narcissistic self.
Or think of it this way: The more you suffer, the worse she looks.
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