How about the common story of a man and woman devoting decades of their lives to raise their children. What better love could there be?

Hmm, how about:

"Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her hankerchief
Quietly turning the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
She (We gave her most of our lives)
Is leaving (Sacrificed most of our lives)
Home (We gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that's lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
Daddy our baby's gone.
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly
How could she do this to me.
She (We never thought of ourselves)
Is leaving (Never a thought for ourselves)
Home (We struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. Bye, bye
Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.
She (What did we do that was wrong?)
Is having (We didn't know it was wrong)
Fun (Fun is the one thing that money can't buy)
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years. Bye, bye
She's leaving home. Bye, bye"

Okay, I'll 'fess up. My wife and I met when she was in graduate school in Evanston here in suburban Chicago (I was long out of graduate school by that time but still closely tied to the campus). After she completed her degree she got a job in and returned to California where all of her family continues to live (she's a 3rd generation Californian).

We maintained a relationship for more years than I care to confess (I'm a slow starter) via telephone, letters, and the occasional visit at Christmas time, spring break, or during the summer.

At long last we married. We've been married now for twenty years and we've stayed together despite all my shortcomings.

There's a peculiar kind of advantage to maintaining a relationship across time and distance: our relationship is based on talking, on communicating with each other. And that goes a long way.

I wonder if/I bet that bloggers are more predisposed towards conducting successful long-distance relationships. or vice versa.

for my part, I dated an amazing girl throughout our senior year of college, then she moved to Los Angeles and then again to Hong Kong while I stayed in NYC. we weren't really sure how things were going to work out, but, after two years of having to fly to see each other (and hong kong is a long flight, let me tell you), she's coming back for grad school at UPenn, and NY-Philly is gonna seem like a trip to the corner store. we never fell out of touch, and I'm so glad we stuck with it.

I just started dating a guy I met at a Jewish retreat, who found out about the retreat by reading my blog. He'd been reading it for a year and had been hoping to meet me just because he liked my writing and POV, but (he said) I was also "much cuter and less strident" in person than he expected.

To avoid unpleasant surprises I pointed him to this post, but not only had he had read it and still wanted to date this older woman, he told me he especially appreciated Joe Katzman's comment!

If this relationship "takes," you will be reading more about it on my blog. Here's to younger men!

John, I dated a guy for 2 years when I lived in Phila and he lived in NYC. I recommend the NJ Transit commuter train. It's tedious but cheap.

Actually Greyhound is faster, and cheaper yet.

John, Yehudit, good for you both. Glad I could be of help. Finding romantic happiness is so difficult in this world - if you think you know where it is, it's worth almost any effort.

I'll add to Yehudit's comment that as an added bonus, your fellow Greyhound passengers sometimes furnish interesting stories to tell on your arrival.

Sigh. My sweetie (whom I also met as a result of a blog ) just left today to head back to California. Can't join her yet, INS process is sloooow.

I forgot to mention that my comment also qualifies for this thread because my new boyfriend is mildly at a distance, in a town about an hour outside of Manhattan.

So Joe, you are going to move to Santa Cruz?

Yes, I am. LOTS of changes coming in my life.

Whoa, Joe. Allright.

I like your entry. Romance can never be one way; both people should always make the effort to make their loved ones feel more special everyday even if they are far apart from each other. Here is an entry about true romance that I found interesting and helpful to all those people who are involved with someone and want to express their emotions.

Long-distance relationships are really hard to manage and maintain. You can't deny the fact that you need your partner to be there with you physically. A big squeeze on the hand or a kiss on the cheek is enough to make you feel better when you're feeling down. I salute couples who have managed through tough times in their long-distance love affairs and have become succesful.

i like ladies too much, so wat can i do? wat is th edifference between sex and love?