Relationships are like cars. When they are new, they are exciting. They look good from every angle, absorb bumps easily, are smooth and fun to drive, and often produce intense bursts of excitement and pleasure. They take you to places you never thought you’d go; places you’d only dreamed about.
But over time, your once precious car begins to take the backseat to your daily hustle and bustle. The regular maintenance that you swore you’d attend to starts to slip.
Occasionally you get back to properly caring for it but with longer and longer intervals in between.
Before long you find yourself noticing other, newer, cars on the road and wonder what it would be like to take them for a spin. But you quickly come back to your senses and think about all you’ve invested and the hassle it would be to find another car. Resigned but disappointed, you decide to stay with what you’ve got.
Then one day your car won’t start. You coax it, you promise it things, you sweet talk it and even yell at it and call it names; but nothing works. You remember you haven’t changed the oil since, well, forever and that the check engine light has been on for months, but “come on, start!”
There you are stuck with a broken car. You wonder about trading it in but you know the same thing will probably happen with your next car. You’ll end up taking it for granted too.
So you pop open the hood and inspect inside and to your surprise it looks like nothing a little time and elbow grease can’t fix. Every day you fix one thing. When the job is too complicated you take it to the shop and let the experts take a look.
Pretty soon your car is purring again. You give it a wash and a wax and notice how good it still looks. The dings and dents that once bothered you don’t as much. In an
odd way you find yourself kind of proud of them. They remind you of the journeys you and your car have taken together and to your surprise and delight you find yourself falling in love with it all over again.
Relationships are like cars.
When they work they are easy to not notice.
When they don’t, they will stop you dead in your tracks.
Don’t risk it; do the maintenance.
