Dear diary,

These days, all I've been discussing with people around me is how love has evolved into something far more sinister, far more complicated and definitely less-than-fairytalelike from the simple, blissful ones that shaped our innocuous childhood. Maybe that's what growing up is all about. You understand that reality isn't just a game of hopscotch, or a stroll in the park, or the sharing of a chocolate malt, or a bedtime story that left you smiling in your sleep.

Yucks.

So love now has many strings attached. So a loving relationship's basis now is more than just "I love you, you love me". And that now it's next to impossible to proclaim love for love without being maced. Ok, all that I can understand, I understand perfectly that you can't really fall in love with someone just by clinging onto her lovely locks or smooching her when she's comatose. All that only happens in -dang- fables.

So what is my problem here? I seem to have understood what love actually is all about isn't it. I have no issues about the expectations that each and everyone has of their would-be partners. Sometimes even dalmations could fancy a pug or two. Everyone has their own fetishes and what really makes them tick. What really bothers me is this mighty little word commitment.

I liken relationships to peeling an apple. Deep down inside, everyone wants to peel the apple in one long continuous strip of skin. Don't ask me why, it just happens. Human psyche. Anyway as I was saying, peeling an apple usually is easier at first. Almost. As the peel gets longer, you start to lose focus, perhaps thinking why you are trying so hard doing something as inane as getting a perfect peel. When the attention is drawn away too long, the peel gets cut short inadvertently. Result: You fail to get a perfect peel. Duh. Two things can happen here - the person either tries to salvage that apple by trying to continue peeling from where he nicked off, or the person would just be unsatisfied with his imperfect apple peel and try to peel another apple. The peel represents the relationship, the level of concentration on the peeling process the commitment, and the silly act of getting a nice peel the love. Geddit? Stupid as this analogy might sound, and I agree to a certain degree that it really is stupid, it does hold some truth. Well, at least to me.

What I'm saying is, if you didn't get my drift, that a loving relationship, less all its expectations, would never be a lasting one if the parties involved weren't committed to it. Love and commitment are the key to a blissful union. Expectations change, people err, and that is by no fault of man, for we were never meant to be perfect. Love without commitment is like a ruffled arrow - it knows not when or where it lands. Commitment without love is like a fish out of water - suffocating and despondent.

For the betterment of mankind, please gag on your smelly socks whenever you think you are ever in -pffzt-"love", yet don't feel the innate desire to dedicate. Bollocks to you. Oh, and don't even let me start on the ozone hole.