Everything and Nothing

It's all the "nothings" that tell you "everything" about someone.

And when you strip "everything" away, sometimes all you're left with is precisely that: "nothing."

Relationships-- romantic, familial, or the ones between friends-- are based on implicit "deals" and exchanges between people. I'll cook dinner if you wash the dishes. We can watch the baseball game tonight if you indulge my love for Katherine Heigl movies tomorrow. I need a shoulder to cry on today, and I promise to be there for you when you need it next. You trust me, and I want to keep that trust. And I will trust you in return.

But relationships-- again, of any kind-- fail all the time. And when they do, it's almost certainly because someone thinks they're getting a "bad" deal. No one can go on giving "everything" for "nothing" in return, and anyone who believes they deserve "everything" for whatever reason but most especially for no reason at all and "nothing" from them back-- well, eventually, people catch on and things catch up.

And then there is nothing.