Hello Ray. I do not want to put you down. You do not deserve that. You are being honest and kind. When I write I have a reaction. I often take the side of the underdog. I look at things in terms of the big picture. I also understand that there are always at least two sides to the coin.

Who is the "I" that sounds cynical? A fellow writer once corrected me, when I asked if she was sick, because her persona in a story she wrote was sick. She was offended. Even if she was, she replied, that it was neither here nor there. The story/the piece happens in a box. We get an idea and we put things into that box that we are going to use/say. Even if all the things I have said in this piece are true, allude to a cynical point of view, they may not be the truth about the writer, even if they are true about the writer.

I began, for example, with a response to what I thought was an argument for polyamory, implied in the question, can you love more than one person?

Like you, I am sure I have loved more than one person at a time. The transition between girlfriends, for example, illustrates that point. I have lived a long life, my life, and probably like yours is filled with lovers, friends.

And love, as you stated, is something much deeper than crushes provide. I have had it all.

Sure, we can have many sexual partners at the same time, i.e. orgy. I cannot remember if two women were fighting for me. I would like to say that they were not.

Back to infatuations. I have "loved" three women, who began as infatuations. I don't think these relationships can be dismissed. Love is both an action/act as Fromm defines, but it can also arise over time, where someone, who may not "measure up" at the outset, but who proves despite various issues, to be lovable and with whom you find she is easiest to be with and you have the same values and beliefs, etc. You love her because she is a good person. But, sometimes, even these things don't work.

So, I know this. I also tried to talk about the rich-poor gap and capitalism and how things are difficult for people to stay together. There are a lot of pressures on them. I work with guys, who work doubles and get barely 2-4 hours of sleep a night to support their families. Love practically kills them.

So, anyway, I don't want you to think about me when you read my piece, which if you did is a failing of my writing. I want you to think about life. Your own experiences, and as you responded, you felt I was overly negative toward reality, of someone simply asking a question about being able to love two people at the same time.

Thank you for letting me know how it came across. No, I am not cynical. I love writing. I like to talk about things that come to my mind. I see the world as a beautiful place. I love words as a philosopher might.