why give love another chance?

Question:
If you touch something hot and you get burned you don't touch it anymore. If you do you are crazy or stupid. So why do people keep telling me to give relationships another shot? I'm just going to get burned again. When is it time to accept that you are better off alone?

Answer:
"We who are about to die salute you!" That line from the movie Gladiator sums up my whole philosophy of facing the pain that will come our way in life. The Gladiators know they are going to die in a very painful fashion. They have no reason to try, except they know that in the struggle and pain there may be a moment of glory and they will certainly feel more alive than they have ever felt before.

We are all going to die. We are all going to feel pain. There is no avoiding these facts of human existence. Our only choice is how we will face the moments in between. We can curl up in a ball and wait for pain and death to find us, or we can charge forward and pry as much life as possible out of the moments that we have.

What you feel when you get "burned" by love is loss, isolation, rejection and self doubt. Do you think that the person who avoids relationships is free of these feelings?

My personal bias is that there is no better feeling in this world than to be connected to another person. Friendship, romantic love, even two strangers sharing the same sight at a concert and knowing the other saw it too. For me life without these connections would be empty.

This does not mean you need to be stupid and give your heart away at every opportunity. Trust is something that must be earned and if you have recently had a heart break then you should take your time before you open up again.

At the end of the day, however, there is no life without risk. Those who try to avoid pain at all costs are merely waiting to die.