A yes with small print isn't love

Today intense, brief adventures abound: a trip, a challenge, an extreme experience. Definitive commitment has less eye-catching colors. And yet, when we see two people who have loved each other all their lives, something in us admires it. We are made to love forever. That's why a love with small print—"as long as I feel good", "as long as nothing better comes along"—doesn't quite amount to love. It looks more like a contract with exit clauses. It's frightening to make a mistake, and that's why the yes has to be well prepared: getting to know each other, maturing, knowing how to wait. But always staying at the door out of fear is a bigger mistake. True love doesn't leave the back door open.