Dating Wisdom from an Alien

 It helps to know what the point of a relationship is.  It would help a lot with decisions.  Still, that can be so confusing.

Sometimes it helps to get some insight from an outsider. 

Aliens qualify, then, don’t they?

So, in class we’re reading this book called The Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman.  The main character, Jason, discovers he’s the child of alien parents.  This causes some challenges for him, as you can guess, particularly in relation to his human girlfriend, who has no idea about it.  Anyway, the following paragraph lends some insight into Jason’s (the alien) understanding of dating:

“Every evening I saw Paula.  No matter how exhausted I felt, I would meet her at the mall or Banzai Burger or the batting cages—anyplace we could go to be together.  We would talk about pointless things, and that was okay, since important part was just talking.  Every once in a while she would start bringing up that picture of Billy Chambers, or the message written in that house in Old Town, or my glove, which I should never have shown her.  I would always find a smooth way of changing the subject, and she would let me.  It was nice to know that she was more interested in me than in the mystery.”

You know what this alien gets?  Dating is about boring stuff.  In fact, all relationships are about “wasting time” together, or in other words, laughing about silly things, talking about the day-to-day, sharing what’s on your mind, asking questions about each other, eating ice cream, walking dogs, and so on.

If you can’t do that with the person you’re dating, you may want to consider moving on. 

Here’s why: boring stuff is really personal.  And that’s what we’re doing in relationships: sharing the real me with the real you. 

The biggest outsider who showed me this is God.  He is intensely personal.  He’s not particularly looking for a nation to come to Him.  He’s looking for individuals, real honest people, to love and to know.  He’d like to waste time with you and for the two of you to get to know each other. 

When you’re in a relationship like that, whether with God or a human, then what is “boring” to someone else becomes really intriguing and fun, because you get to share that with each other.