You know the type, I’m sure. They’re all flashy and fun in the beginning. Mildly entertaining, shiny and interesting. Then they start to sputter. You see that you’re just dealing with flash signifying nothing, but it only happens for a brief moment. The flash and sparkly goodness comes back and you go on with your new friend.

But then the sputtering happens more frequently. And finally their spark and interest dies completely. And you are left with a flimsy little stick in your hand, wondering, why the hell was I even amused by such trivia in the first place?

You’re not necessarily mad at the person for being a “flash in the pan” but you’re kind of irritated with yourself for falling for the sparkle, the glamour.

I know I can’t be alone in feeling this way. I just find that it happens a lot. Most people are sparklers in my life, it seems. Of course, I sometimes get a lot out of meeting a sparkler. I learn something about myself or the world that is a valuable lesson. That’s always a good thing.

My husband and I just went for our evening walk where we talked about sparkler people. He said something really neat. He suggested that the sparkler person benefits from the relationship, however brief, as well. Because you are probably the source of their illumination. You’re the spark that makes them sparkle. That’s a nice idea.

But I invariably feel like a fool for falling for that person and thinking that maybe there could be a real friendship budding when it was all just flash and excitement.

Maybe the lesson here is to learn to identify sparkler people while they are still burning brightly, when you first meet them. That way you know it’s just temporary, but you still get the fun and thrill while it lasts.

Related posts

• Help Identify This Microscope! (4)
• When And Where World Religions Began (4)
• We Are Lions! (4)
• The Truth About Atheism (5)
• The Men In My Life (2)