i’ve been blessed. along with outrageously middling good looks, proportional body parts, the patience of a penguin sniper, and rapists wit, i couldnt have asked for better parents. obviously, i’m not particularly objective regarding this subject, but i can honestly say without ego that the Gods smiled at me when they gave me supporting, loving, wise, and caring people to be my mother and father, people who never hesitated to make any sacrifices needed to help me continue to grow, and still would if they needed to.

yet, despite all of this, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if my parents were asked which relationship meant more to them, ours (my parents and i) or the one they have with each other, they’d choose the latter quicker than a crackheads heartbeat. the bond they have with each other is the most important thing in both of their lives, and nothing, including the champ, can come before that.

now, my parents have been together for 30+ years, and i understand that most romantic relationships don’t have that same type of decades-long bond, but this dynamic brings up an interesting discussion.

we’ve all known that person who completely immerses themselves in every relationship they happen to be in, immediately minimizing all other people in their lives. these are the type of people who’ll add that chick they met last week who let them beat in the bathroom of the banana republic to their tmobile myfaves, subsequently canceling their annual trip to vegas with their boys because that chick asked them to “make themselves available” that week because their dusty-ass kids might need a ride from school. these type of people need to be drawn, quartered, fricasseed, marinated, baked, eaten, and shat in a bucket of possums.

thing is, in order for a romantic relationship to actually work, there does have to be some priority reshuffling and personal paradigm shifting…but when and where?

at what point do you make the decision that cultivating your relationship takes priority over your career, influencing you to stay the course in tampa with your chick instead of taking that job offer in prague? when doing the personal relationship restructuring, where does your serious significant other rank? are they ahead of your friends but behind your blood relatives? number one? number three? sandwiched somewhere between your kids and your parents?

so, people of vsb.com, purveyors and possessors of prudent intelligence, what say you? is there a tangible point when relationship prioritizing needs to occur, and, in your optimum romantic relationship, where would your significant other rank?

—the champ