Whenever I hear the word "malady", I am immediately thrust back in time to the a day of discovery. The first day I heard this word mentioned, it was on a playing card illustrating a gallant knight rescuing his princess from, well, her malady.

That's when I wondered whether this word had a double meaning, an innuendo. Of course, after pondering this for days, I had a 'eureka!' moment (it was bound to occur--I actually THOUGHT about it).

I truly believe that a malady is not just physiological--it's psychological. It's (to state bluntly) a relationship gone awry. Here's my insight. A relationship is like a child and its constituents are like its parents. When in a relationship, it is our duty to offer our utmost care and attention to the relationship--that's the only way it could possibly thrive.

However, in our pressure-driven, capitalistic environment (so we claim), it is too often difficult and tiring to pay such attention to our relationships. I mean, we have so many other things preoccupying our minds--how do I look?, what re-run is on tonight?, where's the money? I think it's time for a new wardrobe...last week's is so outta' here--such significant topics <sarcasm!>. An interesting observation is that on the playing card illustration, a knight from the times of chivalry is curing his lady's sickness, while nowadays, we seem to just keep piling them one--drowning in our own psychological dissatisfaction. That's why many of us surround ourselves with the oh-so-elegant 'fly-by' friends, our evanescent sense of societal interaction.

These fly-by friends satiate us for a few moments (although not even...don't deny the awkward turtle), and then they're gone--they vanish into thin air, leaving us by ourselves, for yet another night of dissatisfying television and dreamless sleep. And, when we do find that special someone, we translate the fleeting qualities of our relationships to the bind till death do us part. According to recent statistics, America's divorce rate is up to 50%--that's one in every two marriages that fall apart.

Is it time that we leave behind our tv dinners, our self-consumption, our loneliness and start paying attention to the people in our lives? Or, is the loneliness conducive to our intellectual growth (I mean, I thought up this whole thing in the isolation of my bedroom!)?

What do you think?