We are here ultimately because we're fed up with being unseen.
We've come here to be known, to share our inner lives, for another person to witness us as we really are.
But herein lies a paradox of early dating.
If we say too much too soon, if we too readily declare ourselves, if we show now what our last three partners knew by the end, we will be abandoned.
Were we to tell them right now in this pretty restaurant with candlelight and Prince of Sicily and an interesting pear and almond tart for later about the crisis at work, the illness we survived, the sort of sex we're really interested in, our susceptibility to anxiety, and the amount of time we have to spend on work trips and with our families of birth, they will run.
The full facts of any life are generally perilous to bear.
And so, we have few options other than to hedge.
Some may call it lying.
We prefer editing.
We tell them that our first relationship was somewhat stormy.
