Be Careful What You Wish For In Your Relationship Or Marriage Part 3 Romance

I've run into another of those "Be careful what you wish for" scenarios, and it's yet another perfect example of how women will say they want something because it makes for a bit of an emotional rush, but it never quite works out the same way in the real world, especially on the subject of ROMANCE.I received an e-mail from an Australian friend, one who's pretty bright when her brain is engaged, but who seems to have been living alone and bored just a little too long, because she's pretty bad about getting caught up in "sweet" e-mails when she's lonely. Check this out:RE: AwwwwA girl asked a guy if he thought she was pretty.He said, "No."She asked him if he would want to be with her forever...and he said, "No."She then asked him if she were to leave would he cry, and once again he said, "No."She had heard enough. As she walked away, tears streaming down her face the boy grabbed her arm and said..."You're not pretty, you're beautiful."I don't want to be with you forever, I NEED to be with you forever."And I wouldn't cry if you walked away...I'd die..."I sent this out to two groups of women for their response. The first group was a group of 16-25 year old single women who had responded to a survey I ran last year. Their archetypical responses were:"Awww...that's sweet.""I wish I had a guy like that.""That's so romantic."The other group was ages 30-60 who are married or in a committed relationship of two years or longer:"'Awwww' my ass! I'd say 'EWWWWW!""Yuck! What a wuss!""Yeah, right. Like anybody would fall for that crap.""Can I just shoot him and get it over with?""Yeah, sure. I can just see Humphrey Bogart or Dirty Harry saying something like that."Are you getting the drift? When it comes to romance, young women and teenage girls are pretty silly, and don't yet have a clue that there are things they respond to differently than how they imagine, while more mature women, while still prone to do that at times, can be expected to be more in touch with their feelings by virtue of having been burned by them in the past, so their reaction in this case is the one that tells you what you need to know.There's nothing romantic about acting like a needy wuss. Yet when we are in our teens and early twenties and are making our first efforts to learning about women, we're inundated with all this silly crap we hear (or more likely, OVERHEAR, out of context) from girls, NOT women, mind you, and those wrong answers hang with us into adulthood until somebody pulls the wool from over our eyes and shows us the truth. One of the worst of these is the girlish tendency to confuse "sweet" with "romantic."So while you can't necessarily be blamed for not having anything better to work with in the past, now that you know there is something better, you have a responsibility to yourself to seek it out, learn it and use it. So what is "romance"? And what is "romantic"?Romantic, more than anything else, is that which is larger than life and sparks excitement and attraction, in a word, "heroic." There's nothing romantic about blowing a month's salary to take a woman to Paris for lunch when you live in North America. That's done for extravagance, and is wasteful. A young girl who has never had to work for what she has might mistakenly see that as romantic, but the average adult woman, while she might fantasize about something like that with a stranger, would see the actual act as wasteful and stupid if performed by the man she's been with for a while......and more to the point, a man who is so frivolous that he would blow money he didn't have like that would not be seen by a woman in or considering a committed relationship as being able to make responsible decisions and be a good partner. He could be a plaything, but nothing more - another one of those things that might get someone's attention in the dating world but has no place in a committed relationship, unless you're so wealthy that going to Paris for lunch is something that you could afford to do for fun and would do by yourself. Otherwise it's just a desperate act of attention-getting and approval-seeking, a sign of a man who's good for buying drinks, expensive dinners and vacations, and then leaving when she grows bored of it.That's not to say that a trip to Paris isn't romantic. But it has to be a real trip. There has to be time to see the city, experience the city and build memories that she can relive, and time to gather mementos to put in her treasure box. There has to be time and opportunity for intimacy to take advantage of being in an exotic place and using it to build excitement, attraction, and all those memories as well. Just being there long enough to say you were there isn't enough.Think not? Think about it for a minute. You hopped a plane, went there, had lunch, and flew back. What memories will she have? Being rushed to caf'e, eating, and being rushed back to the airport. And what happens when she tries to share it with her girlfriends? She will be barraged by "Did you see such-and-such? Did you go to such-and-such? Did you try such-and-such?" To which she can only answer, "No," and then will hear, "Well, when WE went, we did all that, and it was great!" or "Then why did you go?" Instead of an adventure to remember, you gave her a disappointment and embarrassment in front of her friends. That's not romance, is it?To be romantic, she needs to remember more than the sights of the city; she needs to remember you and herself immersed in the emotion of being in the city.And you need to know the difference! You need to know how to look at the situation through her eyes to know if it will be something wonderful that labels you a wonderful man who gets it or a desperate, approval-seeking jackass.Do you?Would you know how to use a trip, a dinner, a bouquet of flowers, or more appropriately, a live plant, or even a "sticky note" to create a romantic occasion for your partner? If you're reading this, I'll bet you don't, I'll give you three guesses as to at least one of the reasons that she's bored and unhappy and you're reading this newsletter......and in truth, should be reading my book, "THE Man's Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage," which you can download at http://www.makingherhappy.com, and getting your knowledgebase in order. You need to purge all the lore, urban legends, bad programming and other utter crap you've heard about women that's swimming around in your head and screwing up your relationship and marriage and get with the real program, the one that lets you enjoy being and feeling like a man and lets her feel like she's truly living with the man of her dreams.You could also join us at our forum, http://forum.makingherhappy.com, where some rather brilliant minds, in addition to my own and including some belonging to some very outspoken women (by the way, we're finding out that when you remove a woman's ability to use non-verbal communication and rely purely on text, she does finally get down to some very bold and very blunt talk, and it is truly fascinating!), to get the low-down on whatever happens to be bothering you at the moment. It's all solid information, and all helpful to those who have the sense to listen.It's your choice, and your responsibility, to yourself and to her, so choose well, and choose quickly. The clock is running...In the meantime, live well, be well, and have a wonderful day!David Cunningham "Being a man is something to which one should aspire, not something for which he should apologize." --David Cunningham