DEAR ABBY: Is there such a thing as "real love"? You know, the kind where you never feel complete unless your partner is there? I read books about this kind of love. I see movies about it and hear songs, but I have never experienced it.
I am not a teen-ager, Abby. I am 47 years old and wonder if I have missed out. -- WONDERING IN IOWA
DEAR WONDERING: You haven't missed out. What you have described sounds more like co-dependence than "real love."
Kahil Gibran said it best in his book, "The Prophet": "... stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow."