When we stop to think about it, Man is highly vulnerable to emotional injury, perhaps even more than to physical injury. If you trip and fall, you may need stitches or a cast. Turn your ankle, and you may find yourself flat on your back with your ankle strapped up. The body has amazing mechanisms for self-healing, but there will usually remain a scar or two, perhaps for life even when modern medicine intervenes to speed the healing process.

The same is true of emotional scars. A single trauma during one's childhood frequently results in a permanent scar. Most of us exercise caution and hesitate to take chances with our physical safety. Should we not be equally cautious with our emotional health?

Anyone with eyes in his head and a minimum of common sense will not take a dive into a swimming pool until he is certain that it is full of water. When it comes to our emotional well-being, it is far more difficult to identify situations which are potentially harmful. Also, it is harder to relate to them with the full earnestness they warrant. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that when a person is wounded emotionally, and scars remain, we are far less aware of the wounds and their impact than in the case of physical injury.

As a result of this lack of awareness, many people dive into empty pools, or pools with only a foot or two of water, without first stopping to weigh the consequences of their actions. As a result, they suffer, often deeply, from wounds no less painful than open sores and broken bones. Many do not even realize how seriously they have been hurt. The soul is no less vulnerable than the body.

Just as the body often mends itself to a great degree, given enough time, so, too, does the heart tend to heal over its wounds. In both cases, however, the scars are often permanent. They can handicap and disfigure the victim for life.

Just as we are concerned that our body be healthy, we owe it to ourselves to be concerned about our emotional well-being. It is irresponsible to place ourselves in situations which threaten to bring harm in their wake, just as we do not pitch a tent on the very brink of a deep chasm, crawl into a sleeping bag, and go to sleep for the night.

There are few areas of life that are so emotionally charged as the relationship between the sexes. The dangers involved are commensurately immense. When a woman forms a bond with someone, she exposes her feelings, for better or worse. The woman lowers the defense mechanisms with which she is accustomed to protect herself from others, and thus allows herself to become vulnerable. Each time a relationship terminates, it is the woman who pays the price. She comes away with far less confidence in her ability to distinguish between true love and passing infatuation. With time, she despairs of finding a true, loyal mate. Likewise, she loses her faith in the basic goodness of man. Eventually, she has lost all the optimism and joy of life which characterized her in the innocence of her youth. 

This situation is sad enough in itself, but the story does not end here. A vicious cycle develops. The next time this same woman meets someone who appears to be the type of husband she seeks, she will automatically be on the defensive, lest she be wounded once again. Having been misled in the past, she will not have the same faith in the sincerity of her wooer a second time. On his part, the man will sense her lack of confidence in him. As a result, he may be put off and lose interest. Thus the woman suffers yet another negative experience in her search for a mate, and is likely to retreat even more deeply into a protective shell of seclusion. The end result is that she minimizes her chances of ever being happily wed even more.

At first, the woman may consider this a step forward in her life. In the future, she tells herself, she will be less naïve and trusting and more world-wise. In the long term, however, the situation is less promising.  Henceforth, she will find it much more difficult to develop a bond with the opposite sex and to set up a home based on mutual trust. With time, she is more and more likely to despair of ever finding the right man with whom to establish a home and a family.