When the Right Book Comes Along, Date It

Dating. It’s on the minds of lots of people these days; I’ve noticed it. When you’re dating after a divorce, you look around and see a lot of changes. You can find dates in clubs, at church, online, or personal ads, but I’ve heard a lot of complaints about these too.

A friend of mine made a date to go out with a woman he met online. Then he hesitated because she complained of men mistreating her and how she was sick of it. He felt for her but he didn’t think he should take the “abuse” in retaliation for some other guy. He’s right.

Dating after a divorce is like a book that’s been written and is waiting for someone to come along and read it and cherish it. It was written and read by someone else, and now that person has set it aside and gone on to another one.

Some people borrow books from the library for a short time. They read them, take them back, and exchange them for others. This is casual dating. You enjoy the book but it’s time to move on.

Some people buy books at major bookstores and keep them for years, only to someday donate them to charity or sell them at a garage sale. This is like a divorce. It was once a book fondly thought of but for whatever reason the person has moved on.

Oh, and don’t forget the dating with children—that’s a book with sequels. You either decide, I don’t want the baggage and discard the book and never look back, or you discover the treasures of the sequels; that they are a tribute to the original yet independent in their own right, having their own little stories.