Death Bed

I was at a lunch meeting yesterday with my work group.  One of the guys in the group is divorced and is dating again after 25 years of marriage.  I've listened to his stories on the dating scene.  It's ugly.  The disrespect people show each other is appalling.  The common justification used in being disrespectful to people is, "it's ONLY a casual dating relationship and I don't OWE you anything."

Wanna bet?

You do OWE people basic courtesy, manners, and respect.  The fact that it is a casual dating relationship does give license to treat people poorly.  This guy has been dumped via text, stood up, and loaned money to women only to have them get angry when he created boundaries stating that kind of behavior is not going to fly with him.  Good riddance. 

One woman got extremely upset with him because he would not drop what he was doing on a Saturday and help her move.  Another got upset because he would not purchase her a $5,000 necklace she saw in a shop window.  Another one thought that he should sell his vacation house to pay off HER debt.  What are these women thinking?  They are the sames ones who dumped via text, stood him up, and loaned them money...and they think they don't OWE him anything.  How about basic tact and manners? 

Still, this guy has a soft heart.  Some of the women he has dated I have also met.  The one woman who got upset because he would not purchase her the $5,000 necklace is now dying of cancer.  She's only in her mid 50's.  Sure, that relationship did not work out but I saw a picture of this woman in good health and then he showed me the video of her on her death bed saying her goodbyes to everybody.  She's not even allowing visitors at this point because death is that close.  I could see how upset he was.  He still cared about her despite it all.  

The dying woman is sorry now that she treated people as disposable tools for her gratification.  Too bad it's too late.  Next life?