I hated hearing that when I was so much younger. There would always be this girl I liked, but she never liked me back that way because we just friends. Now, imagine you're married to that girl. How the fuck does that make sense to anyone? How can anyone be expected to maintain a relationship with the understanding that a decade-plus of emotions or even intamacy are gone because one of them doesn't feel that way about the other.
I'm at a loss of how I can recover from this further-defined state of my marriage. So far it has been imposible to explain this to friends without them seeing as that sad loser in high-school that thought if he kept trying she would eventualy love him too. It feels worse when they all ask the clairifying question, "as in friends with benefits?" Nope. No benefits. Friends as in I'll be there to watch the kids if she ever wants to go hang out with her friends and do fun things. Friends as in... huh. There doesn't seem to be a second example. It's been pretty much the watching of the kids. I mean, she sleeps in a different room. Granted, the fact that we have different taste in things has been brought up. We watch different shows; although there is a number of shows we do both watch, but at different times. We listen to different music; although I'm pretty sure that can be better defined as I don't really listen to the current hits. We have different political views; which honestly I think is just something to bring up to illustrate a division because I really don't like any of the political representatives in any political affiliation.
It's getting harder the longer this definition of marriage continues. We cannot call it a loveless marriage because that has a negative connotation. We cannot call it a marriage of conveinence because that too sounds bad. Open marriage? I fear that will eventually be a new definition; once her desires overcome her resolve to not physically show affection because that would muddle the emotions of friendship she has for me. Once she has found that target of affection that will perfectly transport me back to my teens where I like this one girl that feels the need to open up to me about her feelings for someone else and asks me what she should do. Yep - that always never went well for me.
Negative connotation. When did this world become a place where words that accurate describe something have to be replaced with kinder words that either need to be defined back to the original or immediately remind the interpreter what the speaker really meant. Part of the decision for seperation is because we are two independant people cohabitating at this point in our relationship. Sure, that may be a true statement, but one of those people seems to have defined their life as having the other in it. Without her, I am just me and my kids. There's my work and my home. I don't know why I scaled down my work friends to a point where I don't have enough of them to be able to be gone every opportunity, but that's what I did and now I am alone in a marriage with a friend.
Shit. I don't even think I'm a best friend. I am that sad friend that's always there when she needs someone to make sure she can do fun things; just not with.