Relationship advice from the muppets…

I went and saw the latest Muppet movie (“Muppets: Most Wanted” which was hysterical, check your local listings for showtimes) which inevitably lead me back to listening to the Original Muppet Movie soundtrack and I had a flashback to my childhood.  My favorite song from the movie was one called “I Hope That Somthin’ Better Comes Along” in which a piano playing Rowlf sings with a heartbroken Kermit about the most puzzling, confusing topic on the face of the planet – women.

It starts out:

(Spoken)

Rowlf:Listen, when you’ve been tickling the ivories as long as I have, you’ve seen a broken heart for every drop of rain, a shattered dream for every fallen star!
Kermit: Exactly. She just walked out on me.
Rowlf: Yeah, typical. That’s why I live alone.
Kermit: You do, huh?
Rowlf: You bet! (starts the song’s intro) I finish work, I go home, read a book, have a couple of beers, take myself for a walk and go to bed.
Kermit: Nice and simple.
Rowlf: “Stay away from women.” That’s my motto.
Kermit: But I can’t.
Rowlf: Neither can I. That’s my trouble…

Thats my struggle.  I want to live “nice and simple” but I tend to get wrapped up in thoughts of women, relationships and dating.  Rowlf puts it out there – “Stay away from women” – but we can’t.  It’s impossible, because:

(Singing)
Rowlf:
You can’t live with ’em, you can’t live without ’em.
There’s somethin’ irresistabullish about ’em.
We grin and bear it ’cause the nights are long.
I hope that somethin’ better comes along.

And sometimes, somethin’ better does come along.  Burn Season, Kickball, Pool League, I’m joining softball in the Spring – I have done more during my “Nice and Simple” times than I ever did while I was in a relationship.  The “Somethin’ Betters” keep us focused, for a short period of time – but when it comes to women, there really is something irresistabullish about them.

And the cycle happens all over again.  And as Kermit Sings:

Kermit:
It’s no good complainin’ and pointless to holler.

This clicked with me.   Its pointless to bitch and moan about dating, because its all cyclic, highs and lows, ebbs and flows.

I’m going to have “Somethin Betters” and “Grin and Bear its” and it took a piano playing canine and a heart broken frog to remind this 36 year old that.

Thanks to Jim Henson for bringing the magic of the Muppets to me – you truely are missed Mr. Henson!!!!!