Have you ever been asked the question: "If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could bring an unlimited supply of only one type of food, what would it be?" The experts say it should be avocados because those suckers have a lot of vitamins and moisture and stuff like that. But really, how much guacamole could one castaway handle?
There's a famous little saying that goes: "Variety is the spice of life." For some, this applies not only to diets but also to dating. That being said, where does monogamy fit into the menu?
Goldie Hawn believes ordering the sampler platter, so to speak, is only natural.
"Is it in our nature to be true to one person? A marriage paper doesn't do anything but sometimes close a door psychologically," she said in a recent article in Harper's Bazaar magazine.
For the average person, though, the idea of an all-you-can-eat relationship buffet could be as unappetizing as an all-guac diet.
All culinary kidding aside, it is difficult to believe stories of relationships that last lifetimes, literally. Take, for instance, a true story of sandbox sweethearts. These two met decades ago as children who grew up on the same street. From their teen years on, their lives were intertwined. They married young and have been together since. We're talking a 60-year wedding anniversary, a marathon monogamy that totally counters Goldie's free-love theory.
In the quest to further explore this dichotomy of relationship styles, we looked to literature. Alice McDermott's "Charming Billy" (read it) captures the concept nicely by breaking the issue into carbohydrate categories. One character argues: "Bread was what you wanted over the long haul, when you got right down to it. When you got right down to it, you wouldn't want a lifetime of cake."
Cake: a full-blown, passionate lust fest. High-calorie romance. A short-lived rush of sugar-high excitement.
Bread: Whole-grain, whole-commitment love. Filling, substantial. The base of the relationship pyramid.
Cake lovers are the types who want the piece with the giant icing rose and want a relationship that is packed with movie moments. They believe dating should be about romantic gestures and insatiable cravings.
When they've had their fill, however, and gotten a satisfactory sugar-fix, the relationship often ends up being short and sweet. Just like a diet of cake alone would be hard to stomach, a relationship of such high intensity can be unsustainable.
Bread lovers follow a different diet. For them, a relationship is more about day-to-day support and comfort. Drama is kept to a minimum and so are surprises. Doughy daters can go the distance and often do.
But the argument for bread can be hard to buy. Bread can be boring, and for some, a relationship with too many sweatpant moments and not enough spontaneity sounds stale.
Between cake and bread, what's the healthy thing to do? Some would say a cakey love life is downright decadent. Men and women who switch from passionate partnership to passionate partnership are labeled a variety of things: confused, commitment phobic, slutty.
Are these labelers right, or misguided in their snappy judgments? After all, we only live and love once, so why not, as Marie Antoinette supposedly said, let them eat cake?
If there is ever a time for over-the-top, college is it. We take advantage of youthful energy by staying up late, partying hard and eating what we want -- including dessert for dinner. Maybe it is okay to date in excess as well.
Ultimately, a lifestyle that includes a lot of lovin' and leavin' is not for everyone. In fact, it's not for a lot of people. Most people aren't big bread fans either. Most people like a good muffin (we recommend Littlejohn's chocolate chip).
But that's beside the point. This is a column that deals with extremes, and this is a column in which we're going to conclude that if you want cake, now's the time.
Take advantage of that 20-year-old metabolism while you still can.
Megan Fanale and Meghan Moran can be reached at fanale@cavalierdaily.com and moran@cavalierdaily.com.
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