-Marshall Jones Jr.

Thanks for posting.

Louisville… I pronounce it the first way mentioned here. As Wikipedia says, though, there are a couple different ways people try to pronounce it. I can tell who’s from around here by how they pronounce the city name. I really like the city. It’s has a small city feel with the convenience/coolness of a big city. Why would your sister want to live here – has she visited?

Thanks, as always, for commenting.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

I’m not sure about he friendship part – I know some of my friendships haven’t stuck together through anything. I think I know what you mean though. We assume romantic relationships are going to be perfect (even if we’d never actually say that). When something goes wrong, we are quicker to give it up… in romance we tolerate less friction.

I definitely like what you said about starting with friendship before moving into romance. That’s absolutely true. Friendship is the foundation of all healthy relationships. I foresee some posts on this in the future.

Thank you again for your comment.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

2. Lousiville, Ky (is it really pronounced Lull-ville?) is the only US city my sister would consider living in, although her goal is to live in England in 10 yrs.

3. I look forward to reading about the whole friend/enemy thing.

4. Supply and demand *chuckles*

Which brings me to a point that I’ve been pondering lately. It is my opinion that a romantic relationship should flow from and build on a non-romantic relationship (i.e. friendship). Morever, let’s look at how we in our Western mindset view friendships vs romantic relationships.

When we begin a friendship with someone, we rarely anticipate an expiration date. Most of the time, if the friendship ends up not working out, its due to geographic distance. When people hit problems, issues, etc in their friendships, they are typically willing to do what it takes to make the friendship work, no matter what.

When people begin a romantic relationship, it is almost with the expectation of an expiration date in mind… As if it is impossible to be “compatible” (which is a crock) with someone long term… Look at how we date, how we marry & divorce, etc. Even the fact that we have a word to end marriages, but not friendships…

I think that if we could have a holistic view of relationships, in the context of what they truly are (relationships!), we would have a much better chance of having healthy romantic relationships. This is not to say that I think you should marry every person you date. But that our perspective is skewed.

Putting away my soapbox… I suppose that being single for the last 6 or 7 years has given me ample time to consider and ponder and examine. I just know that the next time I am in a romantic relationship (if that should ever occur), I want it to be a healthy one.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

You know they say, “You can chose your friends but you can’t chose your family.” I define friends as the people I chose to be in my family.

My definition of relationship doesn’t change, I don’t think, in a basic sense, but like working I have a different relationship with the other supervisors than I do with everyone else, it also depends on who I work with more, because we tend to have a better relationship. Really you have some kind of relationship with everyone you come in contact with, but it’s still a relationship none the less.

-Marshall Jones Jr.