Dear Confused,

!NEWS FLASH!  The heart is an organ that pumps blood!  It is a well-developed muscle!  HELLO?  If you're doing well, your pulse will be 60.

I think you mean aphorism.

Your mom's advice is meaningless and I hate all sophisms like that.  "Follow your heart".  Sheesh.

I think "sophisms" is correct for what Lefty was trying to say.

Lucky for you, you have the whole Love and Learn panel to tell what to do through the use of truly intellectual sophisms like "use your head".

Listen, marriage is a commitment.  Sixteen months certainly can be long enough to decide if you want to enter into that "lifelong" commitment with someone.  If it's not, then don't commit to marriage.  If your ex-boyfriend didn't come into the picture just now, would something else have come up? Perhaps AFTER you married your fiance?

I do not know why you and your ex had originally split up.  Yes, it's true that people do change and I know from the mirror that I've gone through lots of change.  But quite often the ways that people relate to each other do not change, and some relationships are doomed to keep going through the same pattern.

It sounds to me like you're not quite ready for marriage.  You might slow things down with your fiance, although that would probably hurt him.  I don't know why your ex is coming back all of a sudden; it sounds a little

Fishy - but human nature.

fishy that he surfaces right now when you were moving on in a major life change.  But you do have to decide what is right for yourself, and try to use your head.

Lefty