Relationships are Like Sex

There is a high that arises from copulating with someone for the first time - the fish scale-like goosebumps on their ribs, the taste of their sweat, the smell of their breath... Temporarily, the two of you melt into a pair of moans synced up in a restless exposé of alluring vulnerability; the squeaky bed plays crescendo as moaning turns into screaming turns into gasping turns into panting, which dissolves into silence. During the blissful post-coital cuddle, you absently gaze at the curtain's theatre of shadows. The somnolent summer sun holds promises of new beginnings.

Only, you've been here before. You might not remember it now, not with all the hormones echoing "Success!" throughout your body. On subsequent pheromone exchanges, however, much like driving, having sex with the same person will switch from System 2 to System 1 thinking: from the stiffness of the gearshift to the wear-and-tear of the brake pads - it will all become habitually familiar.

That's understandable, but for some reason it doesn't feel right. Every day, nature begs me to chase novel sex, to which I don't comply, even though undressing a girl for the first time surely releases the same set of hormones that winning the lottery does. With the same person, the sensation wanes in intensity over time. It's as if we have evolved to chase novelty.

Relationships also possess a novelty factor, which wears off in subtler ways; perhaps a joke stops being as funny, a previously-loved nickname lands surprisingly flat or we convince ourselves the other persons's pile of IOUs is ever so slightly bigger. I hate that every relationship comes with batteries. On top of that, their capacity diminishes every time they're recharged. The corollary strikes me as depressingly obvious; for that reason, I shall omit it.

Just like on earlier occasions, there is a compulsion to fix my relationship. For the first time, I wonder if I should. You see, I used to wish for happily ever afters; now, Get Out of Jail Free cards suffice - and maybe that's ok. Maybe a lack of control would do me good.

Relationships are like sex: it's not easy to keep going past a certain point but, if the two of you can last a while, unforgettable experiences ensue. In a world where the half-life of relationships grows shorter by the hour, perhaps there is some merit to flirting with unforgettableness.