Free Advice Costs Nothing, And It's Worth the Price

The rich and famous have much different courtship rituals than we reg'lar folk. Those of us with a mind to marry meet someone they care to be around, stay around them for a period of time to make sure they aren't maniacs, or Blake Shelton, and then set a date at the faith place or the courthouse, hire a band, and have a good old shindig.

Then, after a getaway to the Gilligan Islands, it's back home to begin life as a married couple.

Or, they skip ahead to life together without the preacher or judge. It's really the same thing. All is well as long as there is commitment and love and everlasting happiness.

AND THEN, there's the celebrity way. News item from the weekend:

Alex Rodriguez Confirmed He's "Not Single" Amid Jennifer Lopez Split Reports

Hours after refuting breakup reports, Alex Rodriguez decided to double down on his relationship status with Jennifer Lopez. On Saturday afternoon, photographers stopped the former baseball pro on his way to the gym in Miami, asking him if he was single.

"I'm not single," he replied back in video footage obtained by TMZ.

Earlier in the day, Lopez and Rodriguez released a joint statement, announcing that they're still together, but are "working through some things." The couple also said reports of them splitting up were "inaccurate."

Just when I thought those two crazy kids had found happiness in each other's arms, or at least in each other's limousines and yachts!

Friends are saying she is off working in the Dominican Republic and he's hanging around in Miami, and quarantines and COVID are keeping their together time to next to nothing, but they "want to stay together."

No one is sure how the rumors of their breakup even started. You have to figure the fact they are in two separate countries helped the story get going.

And here's a quote from a "friend" - "Jennifer was ready to end things with Alex several months ago. After fighting for weeks and living separately, Jennifer was done. But Alex convinced her that he would be better."

JLo and ARod have been together for four years, engaged for two, and no one seems to know where they are headed - either marital bliss or Splitsville. 

Speaking from the perspective of one who's married since Nixon was president, I can offer this advice:

If you want to be with another person, the polite thing to do is to tell them so. If they want you to stay around and they want to stay around with you, they will tell you right back.

This conversation should take place in person between two adults who are on the same continent at the time.

I'm being a bit snarky, but here's the thing: two people who want to make a relationship work will make the sacrifices and...make it work.  Otherwise, why bother? Get together and have fun when you're in the same town, and then go off singing and dancing and whatever it is that AR does for a living now. 

When the other person becomes more important to you than you, the other pieces fall right into place.

Otherwise, they fall in two places.