For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 23, 2024

Great news is also very hard hitting (a real gut punch)!

Mike, Rhetta is not worth your angst. Long distance relationship is the answer you’re looking for. It’s not anything you did. Rhetta just needs someone in person with whom she can see and be with. It’s very rare that a long-distance relationship could work out. It was good when you were together in high school before you left for college. College changed the whole dynamics of your relationship. It’s a simple truth. Rhetta became lonely and sought attention from another guy while you were busy studying and achieving your future goals. Rhetta doesn’t have any goals besides working, making a living, and finding a companion.

Don’t worry, Mike. There are other fish in the sea and it won’t be long before you meet one! At least according to How the Duck.

Coming as this does from Tracey, this statement of “Maybe you just weren’t meant for each other” is particularly interesting. As regular readers, you will remember that Tracey is a girl that had scheduled at least one dance date with Michael (and unknown others) after Michael had broken up with Martha. Michael asked Gordon to take Tracey to the dance instead, foolishly trusting Gordon with his date. At the infamous dance date, Tracey made a play for Martin Bean, a guy who looks a lot like Michael. Tracey’s play for Martin did not work and then Gordon was there when she needed a fallback and not Mike. That led to Tracey and Gordon getting married. Tracey may have wondered what would have happened with her and Mike if Mike had been there at the dance like he was supposed to. So, her “Maybe you just weren’t meant for each other” could be her way of thinking about her and Michael and not just Michael and Rhetta.

Mike does not have the perspective to see that it’s better to find out that a companion is not a good match before you get into a marriage is a good thing. You have to see others to find out. It does not mean that either of them is a bad person; they are just not a good pair. I have one son who learned that and ended up divorced in a few short years. He stayed on good terms with her because of the child they shared. Then he remarried one who was a repeat cheater. Now he has a wonderful fiancée and is afraid to get married again. Another couple did not appear to be a good match because of cultural background differences, but stayed together for 25 years. They had common goals and worked very well together, one of which was a daughter, When she reached maturity, they found themselves with someone they were nothing alike. I did not divorce" her; she was family to me for 25 years. She is still a wonderful daughter to me, but she hates him. I have observed the same phenomena in other middle-aged couples. I was not any smarter than they were when I married at age 20. I learned.

He sure slept well in yesterday’s strip, LOL.

Too bad ZOOM wasn’t around when this strip first came out.

Maybe they were not meant for each other…

I am so glad I’m single for life! Snark!

If his wisdom teeth just came out he might not want to eat anyway.

Just remember second grade Mike…soon it will become clear…

sometimes the truth hurts… a lot. :L

Strange. After college, I moved half way across the country to stay with my Dad. What convinced me that my guy was the right guy is that for Christmas he cared enough to drive half way across the country to see me. Half a year later, he got a “real job” and 2 months after that I moved in. 30 years in and no regrets. When it is the right person, together you can make it work. And this was before free long distance calls and computer game communication was text chat only.

Some times, reality hurts and isn’t what you want to hear.

It’s a cartoon strip. Wait til he brings home babelicious next year.

Why? It could potentially be the reason, Mike.

Oh the agony….until another girl sticks her tongue in Mike’s mouth….then he’ll feel better.

Heroin is not the answer

Mike reminds me a little of myself when my first marriage fell apart. Of course, I blamed myself. “Where did I go wrong?” “Why?” . My guilt and angst knew no bounds!

Took me awhile to realize it wasn’t all about me and see that the “fault” was equally distributed, and admit that we weren’t meant to be together.

Oy!

But you weren’t meant for each other, Mike!

More like thingS you DIDN’T do. LOTS of thingS you DIDN’T do.

Gordo really let himself go

Little did the world know that from this tragedy to a young boy from Ontario, Canada would come the idea for the great Nazareth song:

Love hurts, love scars

Love wounds and marks

Any heart

Not tough or strong enough

To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain

Love is like a cloud

Holds a lot of rain

Love hurts

Ooh, ooh, love hurts

I’m young, I know, but even so

I know a thing or two

I learned from you

I really learned a lot, really learned a lot

Love is like a flame

It burns you when it’s hot

Love hurts

Ooh, ooh, love hurts

Some fools think of happiness

Blissfulness, togetherness

Some fools fool themselves, I guess

They’re not foolin’ me

I know it isn’t true

I know it isn’t true

Love is just a lie

Made to make you blue

Love hurts

Ooh, ooh, love hurts

Ooh, ooh, love hurts

I know it isn’t true

I know it isn’t true

Love is just a lie

Made to make you blue

Love hurts

Ooh, ooh, love hurts

Ooh, ooh, love hurts

Ooh, ooh…

Sounds like the strip where Elizabeth and Anthony broke up. Elly said Candace manipulated everyone. Like Michael’s bellowing in the last panel, Elizabeth screeched that her mother just wouldn’t understand!.

:P

Listen to the lady Mike, she speaks truth.

And we never saw or heard from Rhetta again.

Not even when she married into The British Royal family.

Absence makes the heart go wander…

I think at the end of the relationship, one has to realize it’s not a binary decision.

“It’s not you.”

“It’s not me.”

“It’s US.”

Gee, Mike, I had no idea you’d feel this way about her for all those years. Maybe if you’d given some sort of indication that she was that important, this wouldn’t feel like your cartoonist tying up an overdue loose end.

Cold this be Rhetta testing Mike?

Mike sure seems that he does care and love Rhetta and from the looks that Gord and his wife are sharing they know that Mike has fallen for Rhetta.

I went through several of these over my time. Distance doesn’t stop the pain, just makes you wonder more.

You’ll take away the biggest part of me

Ooh-ooh, no, baby please don’t go

- Butters from South Park singing a Chicago song.

Panel 4: Yes, because we think it’s funny!