Hint: you don't get a future full of love, per se.
For the first time in the past 20 years the divorce rate actually went down. Our romantic side would lead us to think that the sexes are communicating more, becoming more empathic of our life partners, sharing experiences, in short, falling more in love. Nothing can be farther from the true. There’s a direct correlation between the 10 + % unemployment rate and the divorce rate. Simply put: people can’t afford to get divorce.
This got me thinking about what the real divorce rate would be if all of the external forces didn’t engulf our lives. What if money wasn’t an issue? What if the basic necessities of water, food and shelter where plentiful? What if a woman would get up a leave if a man puts a hand on her? What if we didn’t fall victim of our temptations, desires, lust and vanity? What would the divorce rate look like then?
But this is the real world.
We get into long-term relationships, get married, and despite the many negative external variables and despite that fact we almost always end up unhappy in the long run, we continue to try.
So perhaps what we need is to reframe the idea of a long-term relationship into one that focuses less on the end goal (i.e. relationship, marriage) and more on the path.
It's not the destination, it's the journey. The thrill of endless possibility that the union of two people represent, the chance to live in the moment, the chemical high of anticipation that her presences induce, that is why I continue to search, and that's why we still believe in long term relationships and marriage, despite the divorce rate, and despite the fact that we are never promised a future full of love, per se. So that with any potential marriage or long term relationship you only get one thing: the here and now…
Share The Water…
Steve Amarante
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