Over the past few years, I’ve attempted to accurately define the true meaning of love. And while I’ve gotten close to nailing it a time or two, I don’t think I’ve ever completely hit a homerun with my prose. I occasionally kick myself for what I perceived to be literary shortcomings… But then I read [...]

Let me be candid for a moment: while lasting love is the ultimate end goal to your relationship journey, there are a few things that you’ll have to give up the moment you decide to commit. Some concessions will be good, and others … well, let’s just say that they’ll take a little getting used to.

First things first, I’m a fan of Beyoncé. It’s hard not to respect and appreciate the talents of someone who works as hard as she does.

Find me a man who has been in love, and I’ll find you one who’s made countless relationship mistakes. Now as much as I would like to profess our faultlessness in all things love related, that couldn’t be further from the truth. As men, we mess up … it’s as simple as that.

“I know you really like me, but why? What is that you see in me?” ….. As the words left her mouth, I could sense that it was something that had been troubling her for a while. I mean, there was absolutely no reason for her to doubt my sincerity, but I wasn’t about to turn this into a “you need to believe me” type of conversation. No, this was about her feelings, so I wanted to acknowledge them.

My heart aches … And my soul remains despondent …The rest of me just resembles a former shell of itself—a now unfortunate collection of cursed molecules that no longer understands its place nor purpose in this universe. There was actually a time when I sincerely believed that my sole purpose in life was to love you with everything that I had within me. And I did that … I swear I did.

“All I want is a man that’s real.” As the words left her mouth, it was almost as if I could hear a chorus of women standing behind her, ready to take up her cause. This stance is nothing new though. Ask any woman to describe what she desires in a man, and more often than not, adjectives like real and honest will somehow make their way into the conversation.

Allow me to reintroduce myself. If you believe in things like birth certificates or the facts on a driver’s license, then my name is DeWayne Rogers—middle child of three, and product of a mother and father who have been “happily” married for 35 years. I put happily in quotation marks, because like any couple that has been together for that long, they’ve experienced their fair share of ups and downs.

You know what our main problem is when it comes to relationships? We don’t say what we really mean any more. There’s just way too much beating around the bush for my tastes. That’s why I found it refreshing to watch a video where the guy explicitly expressed what he had planned for his woman.

I recently hung out with actor/comedian Marlon Wayans in Los Angeles, as we worked to produce a cover shoot for Rolling Out Magazine. Towards the end of our time together, we got a chance to jump into my favorite topic, which is love and relationships.