The bouquet toss analogy

For the humiliating, but kind of fun tradition that is the bouquet toss, Melanie joked that she was going to throw the bouquet straight to me, and it ended up that she did, albeit accidentally. I saw it flying straight to me, and I put my hand up as if to catch it, but what I really ended up doing was knocking it away from me and over my shoulder onto the floor, where it was quickly snatched up by an eager 10 year old. I couldn't figure out myself if I had tried to catch it, or tried to knock it away, and neither could all of those who saw my arms flapping. We'll have to call in the instant replays from the photographer to clear up this one.
Thinking about how the catching of the bouquet is supposed to be good luck for single women to "catch a man" and be the next one married, it occurred to me that the whole debacle could be an analogy for how I am with relationships in general.

I mentioned it to a few other girls, and we found that the analogies worked for them too: one said that she just plain did not want to catch it, and would have consciously avoided it. She finds herself isolating herself from opportunities and relationships in general. We're not sure if it's just because it's not worth the effort, or if it's because she is afraid of trying to catch it, and missing it. Another girl said that she just didn't expect the bouquet would come her way, so made no efforts to catch it or miss it. I happen to know this girl is usually oblivious when guys show obvious interest in her.

We then thought about Melanie's little sister Hannah who didn't hesitate to snatch up the bouquet I had knocked to the floor. If our bouquet behaviours directly related to our relationship dysfunctions, what could we learn from the girl who caught the bouquet? Well she hardly understood what the tradition was about, but was unafraid and bold enough to take the chance and dive for something that may or may not be something she'd want. She's not jaded.

Enough overanalyzing... I just hope the whole bouquet toss tradition doesn't actually work, because it could be a long wait for me if 10-year old Hannah gets married before I do!

Speaking of analogies: I'm getting a bit worried about the implications on a piece of apparently time-tested wisdom after reading this on BBC.