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Last night, I read Chapter 27 of Stephen King’s The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition. One of the topics in that chapter was Larry Underwood’s love life. Larry met a lady named Yvonne at a movie theater, when he helped her to find her purse, and she treated him to dinner to celebrate. She treated him to dinner (rather than vice versa) because he said that he was really strapped for cash. You’d think that a woman wouldn’t go for a man who is strapped for cash, but maybe women do, when the man is fun to be with. But there are probably no absolute laws on this.
Larry thinks back to his time with Yvonne, when they had their own place, which Yvonne decorated. He remembered Yvonne bringing him a can of beer while he was watching television, sitting on the arm of the chair, and rubbing his neck. He also recalled her home-cooked meals. But Larry and Yvonne had a falling out, and (as far as I could see) the book did not detail what that was about, unless it was implying that Larry was putting his girlfriend on hold so he could watch the World Series. But Larry looks back on that relationship with nostalgia. Page 236 says: “It had all seemed right, it had all seemed his. There hadn’t been one single thing hassling his mind. Nothing had been so good since then. Nothing.”
This reminds me of what I’ve heard from a dating guru, Doc Love, who says that men should look for a woman who is a giver. He even said that we (we men, that is) may find that we want to stick with a woman whose physical appearance is a 6 out of 10, since she is a giver. I think that is good advice, myself. But is it idealistic? I watched an episode of Family Ties recently, the one in which Alex met Lauren, a pretty psychology student, for a study she was doing on overachievers. She asked Alex what he was looking for in a woman, and Alex responded that he would like someone who is warm and supportive. Lauren replied sarcastically, “Do you want a woman or a cocker spaniel?”
Perhaps I could look for what Larry had when his relationship was good, and also the sort of relationship that Doc Love recommends. But what happened to Larry’s relationship in the end and that episode of Family Ties present an additional facet: that a relationship involves people, and, that being the case, things are not always ideal!
