A relationship is an organic thing, taking physical root in parts of your memory, hopes, dreams, expectations, etc. When it ends, it’s effects don’t simply disappear- when a tree dies, it is eaten by new things; bugs of self-doubt, mold of longing, other creatures of envy, and plants of what-could-have-been. When all these consume the dead tree, they look for more dead trees; but if we starve them for long enough, then none of these feelings will take root and be a part of our next beautiful tree, which arises from the nourished, clean, enriched grounds from which the earlier trees have come and into which they’ve been absorbed.

So, all things in time, and in order.

The transcriber may have deemed the verbal-nonverbals as unworthy of notation, but I can attest that the original Neil Sedaka single had them.

I, myself, spell that section as “down doobie-doo down down, comma comma down doobie-doo down down…” But it’s the same basic idea.

As for “stemming the flow like there’s an on/off switch,” no, I don’t think that’s possible, at least not for me. Even when I’ve had a clean break to end a relationship, if that relationship (romantic, friendship, whatever) had any import to me, the emotions faded at a much more irregular and cyclical pace.

YMMV, o’ course….