Four

“The most beautiful thing about love is the beginning. That’s why I always like to begin.” Four or five years after the bear and I broke up, we were standing over a bottle of booze and philosophising about past and future relationships, about how our lives had evolved since we had split ways and about how change had caught up with us to the point where we merely recognized each other.

It was easy then and it’s easy now too to look back at relationships and friendships and see what went wrong or right. I guess in some prospect the past always gives you some kind of assurance – is that the reason why so many people like to live in the past, I wonder?

The beginning of a friendship, however more exciting, is always linked to some kind of insecurity, because while trying to know the person next to you better, you are often afraid that revealing too much of yourself will put a responsibility on your friend’s shoulders that he can't or will not handle.

So here’s a question: How much risk are you willing to take in order to win a friend? Would you risk being hurt just because you want to be yourself? Or is it maybe better to sit and wait and know the other one before you reveal yourself to him?

But then again, is being hurt for what you are not better than living safe as another person?