Welcome to the Commune podcast. This is Jeff Krasno. How many of you may receive my weekly

Sunday commusing article, where I address a breadth of issues from the spiritual to the sociopolitical.

And on occasion, I will also record an audio version of these articles and release it as a bonus episode.

So today's recitation, in honor of Valentine's Day, is a continuation of my audit on the nature of true love.

If you're interested in receiving my weekly article, sign up at Onecommun.com. And if you're not totally

sick of me, you can follow me on Instagram at Jeff Krasno. So, without further ado,

here's this week's commusing entitled Completing Yourself. It was 1994. Bill Clinton was president. Schindler's List won best film, Amazon was founded,

and Skyler and I were living in a matchbox apartment on West End in Manhattan.

I was holding down a job making classical music for dummies, and Skyler was auditioning for

theater roles. She got plucked for the lead in a play that would run in Los Angeles for three

months. Off she went to warmer climbs climbs as pitiful old me was left behind

to brave yet another frosty New York winter alone. Her absence tugged at my heart. As January trudged

into February, I slowly summoned the will to ask for her betrothal.

Even though we'd already orbited the sun seven times together, a successful outcome was

hardly guaranteed. A devout iconoclast, Skyler never fancied marriage, frolicking children,

or a two-car garage. She descended from a long

lineage of pant-wearing, breadwinning, unwedded women on one side and libertarian hippie ranch

women on the other. This combination resulted in a high cheekbone sort of freewheeling independence

that often made me feel more like a beloved pet

than a mate. When I first tumbled into love with Skyler, I was a boy, flailing in the exhilarating

darkness of adolescence. My mother had long left the scene. My boiling testosterone levels were

dampened only through incessant bong-toting. I

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