I'm pulled like taffy in two different directions

My first boyfriend is no dime, plus he broke my heart -- but I feel the old attraction

By Cary Tennis

Published September 3, 2010 12:32AM (EDT)

Hi Cary,

I'm an avid reader of your column and on more then one occasion have been found at my desk nodding and pointing in agreement with your thoughtful advice. So I thought you would be perfect for this problem. I'm 24 and have been in a "serious" relationship for five years now, but people have recently come into my life that have opened my eyes to the docility of the relationship.

The person is my ex-boyfriend who cheated on me and broke my heart when I was 19 years old. He recently found my phone number and contacted me with the pretense that he wanted to ask for my forgiveness. In short, we have met up a couple of times, kissed, have talked about pursuing something more, but I keep putting it off because I feel terrible about what's already been done. At the same time I feel like there has to be a reason for me sneaking behind my bf's back and doing this to him. We have had our fights, and honestly I have tried to break up with him, but when I do so he always sways me otherwise. My ex is not a dime, either, as he has his baggage and I know I wouldn't want him as a replacement -- immediately anyway. My ex always brings up the fact that we should give it try since we loved each other once, and frankly they both seem like the same person. Ahhh!

Taffy (Pulled Two Ways)

Dear Taffy,

I like that word "docility." You say your eyes have been opened to the "docility" of your relationship.

The Oxford English Dictionary definition of "docile" is "Apt to be taught; ready and willing to receive instruction; teachable." Its second definition is "Submissive to training; tractable, manageable." As in, "The docile wife would obey without a murmur." Docile, like docent, comes from the Latin root "docere," to teach.

So you have been teachable. Perhaps you have been taught all you can be taught and are hungry for new knowledge.

You want some excitement that you are not getting in your relationship and you are getting it by kissing this former boyfriend. But you feel bad about that.

Yet you say, "I feel like there has to be a reason for me sneaking behind my bf's back and doing this to him."

There probably is a reason, which is not the same thing as a justification. You're doing to your current boyfriend what your ex-boyfriend did to you.

Perhaps you hope that sneaking around behind your boyfriend's back means that he deserves it somehow. The logic there seems to be, "I'm doing this, therefore it must be OK. For why would I do it if I didn't have a reason?"

Of course, the reason isn't the point.

So the wheel turns. You're in the grip of powerful forces. As are the titans of Wall Street, whom we vilify. Money and sex. It's not like we could just tame them.

I also like your use of the word "dime," as when you said your ex "is not a dime, either." I had to look it up but I liked what I found, i.e., a metonym for a "10," the term "10" having been immortalized by the Blake Edwards film, which one might say is "eponymous," a word I used to detest in rock album reviews as it seemed so unnecessary when one could say "of the same name" just as easily.

And note the difference between metonym and metaphor: "When people use metonymy, they do not typically wish to transfer qualities from one referent to another as they do with metaphor: there is nothing press-like about reporters or crown-like about a monarch, but 'the press' and 'the crown' are both common metonyms."

That is, there is nothing "dime-like" about your ex-boyfriend, even if he were a 10. And all this comparison reminds us of what's going on in the relationship. You are restless, and you are thinking maybe there's something better out there, and there's something about the act of ranking pleasures that leads us to consider if we might do better elsewhere.

"'Blake’s timeless original encapsulated the fallacy of "the grass is always greener" in relationships,' said (Hyde Park chairman Ashok) Amritraj," who was at that time, two years ago, talking about doing a remake.  (Are they still working on the remake? Man, that movie sure made for lots of posters on undergraduates' dorm-room walls.) By the way, have you ever seen the original poster for the move "10"? We don't tend to remember that one.

But we digress. But thank you for sending me on that little trek! It's one of those digressions I'm often vilified for. But this one was suggestive, or productive, and I don't mean like a productive cough. It was illustrative of my point -- that we all want to stray from whatever is familiar. We grow tired of the routine. We seek things that make us light up. Our brains seek things that make them light up. That's what the brain is for, aside from figuring out wiring diagrams. It's for lighting up. And what does it light up? Is there a "spirit" or "soul" that lights up, or is it purely the lizardlike reflex of a faceless bundle of neurons?

I dunno. I really don't. But I feel that we can all be much healthier if we tone down the moralizing and recognize that much of what we struggle with is beyond our control, neither good nor bad, just the car we're riding in. We're just trying to stay in the car we're riding in, or drive the car we're driving, or some other equally tantalizing and yet idiotic pseudo-mystical metaphor.

The truth is simpler. He turns you on.

You are young and easily turned on. It's an animal thing. So don't feel bad. I can't tell you what is right or wrong.

I can suggest this: I suggest that you act in a way that makes you feel strong and unafraid.

Try that. Try acting in a way that feels strong and unafraid. Whatever that means. It might mean telling your current boyfriend the truth. Or it might mean continuing to see what happens. It's up to you. It's your show.


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