BY Lux Alptraum
October 22, 2007
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The New York Times “Modern Love” column: 1/3 inspiring, 1/3 boring, and 1/3 aggravating. Every Monday, we review this week’s installment, and let you know how the current tale of love (lost, found, or otherwise) stacks up.

It’s time for another episode of “Taking a ‘Modern Love’ Column That’s Not About Sex and Turning It Into a Sexy Analogy!” This week, we have the story of a young college student who spends a semester in Niger, falls for an adorable two-year-old, and finds herself wishing that said happy little toddler came from a broken home, so she could rescue her and keep her forever.

We’ve all had similar thoughts: probably not about two-year-olds, but certainly about, say, people we’re crushing on who just happen to be spoken for. “If only X would go through a terrible break up,” we think, “then we could save the day and prove that, really, we’re the one for X.”

Of course, what the author of the piece realizes — and what, deep down, we know to be true — is that if we really care about someone, we’ll want what’s best for them: even if that means not having them, even if that means not getting what we want.

Which is comforting in a way, really. While we’re crying ourselves to sleep knowing that X will never be ours, at least we can comfort ourselves knowing that X is happy dating Y: and we want X to be happy, in the end. Really, we do.

[Photo by funkyah]