John Y’s Musings from the Middle: Human Relationships

I am coming to the conclusion that all human relationships are a variation of parasite-host.

That’s not as bad as it sounds. And often can work. For a while.

Some hosts don’t know they are the host and once they find out are appalled and demand change.

By contrast, a parasite always knows (or suspects) he (or she) is a parasite. And if they learn they are acting like a host, they are appalled and demand change immediately back to their original role exclusively as parasite only.

The stages of most human relationships seem to follow this course:

Stage 1: Host —Host

Stage 2: Parasite–Host

Stage 3: Host–Parasite

Stage 4: Parasite-Parasite.

It’s usually during stages two and three that problems start to occur. But not until stage four before the parties realize these problems. And by the time both parties are behaving like a parasite, it is too late. Hosts can become parasites. But parasites almost never become hosts.

There are instances of this happening with medication, group therapy and behavioral modification. But takes a long time and changes are unstable. It is usually more efficient for each party (each parasite) to instead find a new host to befriend than try to change or get the partner to change.

Or simply try to eat one another.