Here's the problem with all relationships: They either immediately work or they don't work

You CANNOT force ANY relationship to work or this can get very dangerous like the Gabby and Brian relationship was.

I have been in many many relationships and the one thing they all have in common is you have to see whether it works or not. It really doesn't matter how much you love a person or not in the end. The point is: "Can you survive each other?" This is the most important question of whether you want to stay alive or not. 

So, every relationship I was in I was looking for whether I could survive this relationship and whether the person I was with could survive this relationship. The younger I was the less good I was at making good choices though. Because all this takes a lot of pain and experience to learn usually.

If you expect your first big love to work, you almost always will be extremely disappointed and possibly even suicidal. This is just the nature of love (good, bad and indifferent). 

Things almost never happen the way you expect them too.

But, if a relationship works it's sort of like the sign you see in car garages a lot where they fix cars which is: "IF it ain't broke don't fix it."

In other words when a relationship works you don't always know why but if it works for you and your significant other you should just count your blessings.

However, if you try to force a relationship to work often someone dies or goes crazy one of the two.

So, remember this: "A Relationship is either going to work or it isn't from the beginning." 

And if this relationship isn't working, end it as soon as possible by either walking away and ending contact or however you can survive the end of this relationship. Telling someone you are breaking up with them sometimes is fatal too. So, walking away and not answering their phone calls sometimes is best I have found in the past when I was young.

If you want to survive your life and not die learn to walk away from a relationship that isn't working for you OR for the other person.

Try to save your own life but also try to save your significant other's life too.

It's only kind. 

So, if it isn't working walk away as soon as possible before someone dies.

IF a relationship works (1 in 100 or 1 in 1000) in reality then count your blessings and give thanks to God.

Otherwise, just walk away so you both can live good lives and find someone else. 

Relationships

If you can't laugh at yourself and each other in a friendly way your relationship is soon over.

Because Truth is stranger than Fiction

or Truth is stranger than Fishin'

or Truth is stranger than fission.

It always was and always will be.

So, laughing at things that happen rather than shooting each other or abandoning each other is always a good idea.

No one is perfect all the time. So, if you cannot laugh at these points your relationship is soon over.

However, if you both can't laugh together  at things this doesn't work either. Friends can laugh at silly things together.

And so friendship is the basis of all long lasting relationships. Mutual friendship. Mutual love and respect.

Relationships

I was talking to the girlfriend of a good friend of mine last night after I survived my ordeal on Mt. Shasta. I was pretty out of it so from exhaustion it would sort of be like if someone drank a bottle of wine and was in physical pain even though I was just suffering from an extreme form of exhaustion alongside of several injuries I had sustained trying to get back down through the snow while I was dealing with pushing too hard at too high an altitude for my age and condition.

So, I was talking to her about relationships because she had never had children even though she was about 50 but incredibly well preserved and beautiful and happy and healthy with a Master's Degree in Music. So, I guess I was trying to share with her more what it is like for me with children which is a different lifestyle since I started having children in 1974. My youngest is going off to college in the fall and my oldest will be 40 next month and just got married and is having a baby in June.

I was trying to explain to her how my first priority is not myself but always my children and how though I dated a lot before I was 25 how all this had to change a lot when I became a father to a son and had to start thinking differently.

I said to her, "There are people you fall in love with and there are people you have children with and they aren't always the same people."

So, I said to her, "If you are a decent human being you have to honor your children's needs above your own."

Though I didn't tell her this internally I knew that over the last 40 years since my son was born often about once ever 10 years or so I would fall in love deeply with someone not my wife. But, I had to choose the well being of my children over my own needs (however, to be realistic I wasn't always 100% successful with this). However, in the main I stood by my children through whatever was happening in their lives or mine and as a result of this all of them are still talking to me and have a pretty good relationship with me(all of them between 18 and 40 years of age). I would say standing by my children allowed me to still be alive now at age 66 more than any single thing I have done in my life. So, honoring your children (if you are a real parent) which many are not will give you what you need to live to old age often as long as you take care of your health (on all levels too).