Mixed Messages

Come here. Go away!
Look at me. Stop noticing me!
I want you. Don't touch me!

These people as characters can be incredibly interesting. The reader cant help but want to know what forces created a person that is so screwed up they fight against the very thing they long for.

These people as people are just annoying.
Sure there's a certain amount of intrigue involved - especially if you actually care about the sender of the mixed message. But if you barely know that person, if you haven't developed an emotional connection to them, you're more likely to just write them off as more trouble than they're worth.

But what if you have developed that connection? What if you DO want to get close, and touch and share and that person is still sending the mixed message. What then?

A long time ago, in my wee, distant adolescence I read a quote somewhere that stuck with me. Mr or Ms Anonymous said: Everyone deserves a second chance, and another and another and another. As many as the heart can endure.

I took it to heart. I live by it in my love life. Second chances. They're the backbone of a successful relationship, they're what keep us circling around each other until we are so fully intertwined that we cannot even fathom separation.

But there's the second part of that quote - the part that has become more important to me as my experiences grow. "As many as the heart can endure." That's really the crux isn't it? At some point you move from being a caring, forgiving soul to a doormat, willing to accept whatever dross is throw your way. Especially if it's all dressed up in gold.

So for me, I don't like the mixed message. It can work at the beginning of a book, it can work in the beginning of a relationship - but after a while only trust, plain-speaking and honesty will truly get the job done.

How do you sort out mixed messages?







Just Finished Reading: The Man Next Door
Currently Reading: Lover Revealed
Currently Reading: Ceremony In Death
DNF: A Family Practice