DEAR SUSAN: It's the end of the world because it's the end of my love affair. For five years, we've been together — years of fun and laughs and serious talk. Now he wants out. Actually, he's gone. And I'm lost.

DEAR BLOGGER: You, friend, are a victim of divorce. There are no legal papers to sign, because this is a premarital divorce, but the pain is just as intense. And it's the old timeworn story: A special man appears. You drop your single buddies in favor of (his) coupled friends. His world becomes your world. But when the world turns on its axis and the relationship is over, that world turns to ashes. You are left with a much smaller world and intense feelings of pain, resentment, hostility — hardly the ingredients of a new life, but that is your challenge: to start over with a fresh vision. Somewhere deep inside, you know that you are still an OK person and you haven't been thrown over because of some basic worthlessness, but the challenge remains to reconstruct your world. Your work now is to find the energy — and the optimism — to do just that, especially when you know the whole process could happen again and again, a future of ecstasies and agonies. But there is a way out, and it's definitely NOT to stop risking your heart. By designing your own spheres of interests, friends and activities, your world doesn't end if and when love ends. Keeping the balance takes a conscious decision not to wrap your very life around your man, to resist losing your very soul in the heat of togetherness. Keeping your separateness within the togetherness is actually a generous act; your self-interest reduces the pressure on a man to be all things to you! It definitely makes you more interesting, and it distributes your partner's responsibilities more evenly. The biggest plus of all? It equips you to handle the terrible moment when someone you love makes a choice you don't like. e may be lost, but are still intact. Clip this letter and read it before every date, my friend. By losing this man's love, you may well have found yourself.

DEAR SUSAN: The man in my life will not commit. We've been together a few years, but he's always backing out from any talk we have about our life together. I'm at my wit's end. What's your opinion?

DEAR BLOGGER: I'm staying out of this saga, out in the airy-fairy neutral zone where breathing is easy 'cause we leave commitment for the next guy. Sorry to say, your letter puts YOU into my lens for closer inspection. Just how can you be with a man for years and not give him a title? Husband, lover, best friend, buddy, pal, almost-got-him. Somehow, I feel in my bones that YOU'RE the one with allergy to commitment, happy to complain about the man in your life once in a while. You've been at your wit's end for YEARS? How can that be? No, I don't buy it. If one partner won't commit and the other wants commitment, then they should split and think about things. But there you stay, together day after day, year after year, knowing for certain he won't commit. That relieves you of many responsibilities and keeps him cast as the eternal villain of the piece. What could be a cozier arrangement for you? Sorry to burst your balloon, dear lady. But my itching palms never fail me. This is a setup for you, allowing you plenty of grousing room (not too loud, please. The neighbors might complain). I wish you and your man eons of togetherness (unwed, of course).

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