Let me quote something you wrote. "When you reach the boundary between like and love, you know you are entering a different country. You are beyond newness and infatuation. You know what Shakespeare meant when he called love 'an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken.'"

On one level, I agree with what you say. But I believe very few of us find what you describe. We end up settling when we reach a point at which we realize it is either that or being alone.

I, for one, have never felt what you describe and recently have come to terms that I will not. I am 50, outgoing, attractive and independent, with two children who are blessings I would never have if I did not "settle." I know I will never make that mistake again, and I find I am alone and probably always will be.

Is love the luck of the draw? Are some of us just luckier than others? Or is it something lacking in me? I would love to know.

Linda

Linda, sixty years ago the science fiction writer Ren