How Many Times Do We Truly Fall in Love?

Came across this recently.  Supposedly, most people fall in love 2.5 times in their life, according to an essay by Doug Coupland.

That's true for me.  In my early 20s, it was an ill-conceived affair with an older man and in my late 20s, an older (by 4 years), grumpy dentist (or maybe that came later).  Thirty years later, we're still together.

I was always taught that there's only one true love in your life, but, like the stats, I've had two.  (Men believe more in a third love, it's said. )

I sometimes wonder if there's one more (who doesn't when you've been married forever?), but I knew my husband was it, the night I met him. There was just something so right about him.  It may have taken us 10 torturous years to get down the aisle, and another 15 to 20 to get it right, but we'in a good place now, and we even kept it together long enough to conceive a son, 12 years ago, something I could never see happening when we met in the early '80s.

Some psychologists  believe it's closer to five or six loves, Coupland reports, but maybe that's counting all the casual affairs you have in the meantime.

He also writes a lot about online love, and what the Internet has done to dating and relationships.  In the end, he's all for it, but he notes that six loves get used up pretty fast on the Web.

So what are we to make of all this?  Is there something wrong with you if you've only had one love and it's your high school sweetheart?  I know some of those, and not at all.  I'm envious.  Even though I dated quite a bit before I met my husband (and he, not so much), all I remember now is my time with him.  Is that good or bad?  I don't know.  But I don't think I'm getting to that .5 just yet.



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