I used to think that being in a monogamous relationship narrowed one's romantic life considerably: I remember clearly, for instance, how much being married cut down on my dating.
However, I am finding, for some reason, that my ability to be madly in love with people I don't know, know slightly, know well but not in that context, or haven't talked to in years, is actually iIMPROVING. Is this a function of finally feeling secure enough to indulge in fantasy? is it a midlife crisis? Have my meds worn off? What's going on here?

Glen Campbell, for instance. I have now listened to "Greatest Hits" about 672 times in a row. I stare at his fluffy, golden, 1967 Good Boy With An Edge hair on the album cover (on iTunes, but still, an album cover)-and I love him madly. Never mind that I know that he is now a mean old Palm Springs hillbilly who spends hs time paying golf and abusing Oxycontin (well, according to the research i've done , courtesy of the online National Enquirer) --I don't care. In that Greatest Hits Album Cover, he radiates the appeal that can only be described as "I Am Hovering On The Edge Of being Completely and Permanently Emotionally Unattainable, And Only You Can Save Me. -Maybe." -Oh Glen! Put down that Percoset, get in your golf cart, and come to Brooklyn! -Okay, maybe no such a hot idea. Got a little carried away there. Sorry. No.

Maybe it's the Christmas Season that has me smiling wistfully: at romance, at love, at the memory of old boyfriends, old crushes, UPS men, young male Abercrombie and Fitch models, etc. Maybe it's the article about Open Marriage in the Post yesterday. -No, no, just kidding. Maybe it's that Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice/WhatYouGot? is a time for hazy nostalgia.

Or maybe I just really like Glen Campbell.

xxx