Whatever happened to good ol’ fashion “like”? It’s an odd phenomena when Single Person strikes up a conversation with Total Stranger. The countdown silently begins 10, 9 ,8 ….when Total Stranger hurriedly, awkwardly, injects this phrase: “My wife (girlfriend, partner, etc etc) and I ….”
Just saying ……takes mere seconds…
Can Single Person engage in a conversation with a Total Stranger before Total Stranger’s brain is saying “uh oh, my wife/girlfriend is going to be upset with me talking to another woman so I better let them know I’m taken”? Who has had this experience? Deja vu?
What ever happened to “like”? Why not a like life (vs a love life), as in Lorrie Moore’s collection of short and snappy stories, “Like Life”? Friends? What a concept.