No matter the circumstances, there's something deeply rooted deeply within us that causes a knot in our stomach when we think of our lover's ex lovers. We stress and strain and try to rationalize it. It doesn't matter, though, that it was forever ago, or during adolescence, or during a period of heavy drug use... it still bothers us.

And I'd like to think that it's less the age-old obsession with property and virginity, but something deeper, something of more substance. A spiritual wound, almost, and we look at our lovers knowing full well that theirs was a lifetime explored in preparation for us, and we cast such salves over gaping wounds, regrets about our own past, profound desire that it would be simpler... ever simpler.