Moderator Edit: Link removed for copyright concerns.
I have linked Lewis' essay, The Trouble with 'X' above for easy referencing.
When I first read this essay three years ago, my boyfriend "Greg" had just broken up with me and I was having a really hard time accepting the fact that although we were still good friends he didn't want anything more from the relationship, while I still felt like he was perfect for me and harbored secret hopes that we might someday get back together (whew! How's that for a run-on-sentence). Anyway, I read this essay as a class assignment and it couldn't have been better timed for me. What stuck out to me most at the time was that, I can't change other people. I realized at that point that no amount of praying or begging or flattery would cause Greg to "come around" if that was not what he wanted. I was finally able (though reluctantly) to finally let him go.
A year and a half later the same counsel I received back then helped me to determine whether I should accept another young man's proposal of marriage, and eighteen months later I do not regret my choice. We have a wonderful marriage based on acceptance of each other's faults and weaknesses and our own self-improvement with the (solicited) help and support of the other party.
This is a wonderful essay of Lewis', because no matter what point in our lives we are currently at, one can always find wisdom and inspiration in its paragraphs.
