Melanie

My ex boyfriend and I broke up about four months ago. We were only dating for four months, but we had been really close friends for about a year. Naively, I'm afraid, I assumed that after we broke up (note: the relationship ended really well, I thought) we would still be close friends. We spent some time together, in the company of our mutual friends, during the first few weeks after we broke up, but after that, I got distracted with work and school, and my ex started showing less and less interest in talking to or seeing me. A month or so later, I ran into some personal problems and I was feeling especially lonely knowing that I didn't have my ex, who was my best friend just a few months earlier, to talk to. I knew he had been avoiding me and I didn't want to be that "crazy ex-girlfriend" who couldn't restrain herself, so I tried to keep my mouth shut, but I was desperate at the time, not feeling or acting like myself, and I couldn't. I sent him an email and a kind of obnoxious text so he'd respond. He did apologize, and he was nice and honest about things, but he hasn't made any effort to contact me since. Now that things have settled down a bit I'm trying to determine whether or not I should try to talk to him again. I really miss having him as a friend. I see him talking to his other ex girlfriend, because I'm friends with both of them on Facebook, and it's really frustrating. I'm not sure what to do. I don't want him back. Honestly, I don't. But he's a good guy, and he was my best friend for practically a year. I wish I didn't miss him, because I'm afraid he doesn't miss me. I'm afraid I've scared him away. Any thoughts?

Just curious to see what people think of the Unitarian Universalist faith. If you're not familiar with it, I'd suggest reading the UU Wikipedia article or visiting the UU Association website (uua.org). It provides a pretty good summary. Of course, every Unitarian Universalist and every UU congregation is different.

Thanks in advance for your responses!

I'm 18 years old, and a registered democratic in Pennsylvania. Today is the primary and after months of watching debates, listening to canidates' speeches, and even attending a campaign rally with the former president Bill Clinton, I am still unsure about who I should vote for. I like both Hillary and Obama, and feel that there are really very few differences between the two.

Should I still vote?

Democrats, who are you supporting as the Democratic nominee for president and why?

This is one aspect of Christianity that I've always had a difficult time with. As a former Christian (now Unitarian Universalist) I was taught that if you were baptized and/or believed in Christ as your savior then you would be granted eternal salvation, if not, you would be banished to hell. Yet I realize that there are many good people living in this world who may not have been exposed to Jesus Christ. Many were raised with other beliefs like Judiasm, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Atheism. I don't understand how God could deny salvation to these people when he himself created them. What do you think? Maybe a good follow-up question would be this: How does Christianity/ how do Christians explain the worlds many religions?

I'm 17 and the few relationships I've been in have'nt been all that great. So now I find myself shying away from them all together.

I consider myself a very excepting person, but at the same time I can also be a bit of a perfectionist. (I also realize that I am far from being perfect myself, I'm actually VERY self consious) I find faults pretty easily, and often assume it best not to get involved in a relationship when I know won't last long. One guy in particular who I've been friends with for awhile, took me out just recently, and we met up with one of his friends. I've been answering phone calls and texts from him at least once or twice a day ever since. So he's interested, yes. But me, I hesitate.

So I guess my question is am I missing out? Should be more open to relationships or should I trust my gut and avoid getting hurt/ hurting someone else?