monogamy

Reach for those Koss Porta Pros, sweaters and Doc Martens, and embrace the gloom.

I didn’t start out as a relationship anarchist — most of my earlier relationships were monogamous, although they never seemed to last more than a few months.

I enter open relationships not as a ready participant in the established guidelines but as an interloper. I am always sure that I might be the exception.

Social prescriptions limit the acceptable forms of love, and among the most difficult norms to defy is monogamy. If your instincts carry you outside social convention — as mine have — you must work all the more diligently for love to succeed.

The polyam community is one of the most welcoming and accepting, regardless of whether a non-monogamous lifestyle ultimately ends up being for you.