Make sure you promise me this: the beginning of commitments we still make even if we cannot keep them. Deathbed demands connect the living to impossible promises. Parents asking youngsters for commitments: keep your sister under supervision, finish college, avoid making my errors. As if promises could stop future from developing naturally.
Promise me you will be happy means carry my guilt if you're not. Promise me you won't forget me means I'm afraid of becoming irrelevant. We mask our worries as demands and blame others for our own anxiety. Lovers need pledges like heartache insurance policies. Promise me always, promise me faithfulness, promise me you'll never change— impossible guarantees we make since denying seems cruel. People evolve, conditions change, and forevers rarely come true as promised.
One of the cruellest pledges are those we make to ourselves: I pledge I will start tomorrow; I promise this time is different; I swear I have changed. self-deception disguised as commitment, intentions misread as change. Maybe honest promises admit doubt: I vow to attempt.