Procrastinating leads to pontificating and, as this is a topic upon which I have pondered a lot lately, (and also because I'm having issues writing my World Civ paper), here I go
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The reality, as I've found it, has both the grand and the subtle in it.
The sweeping in-love feeling is wonderful, but tends to be relatively fleeting. After the initial rush (whose intensity can vary quite a bit) it's something to be harbored carefully, and consciously rekindled now and then. This is basically romance in its purest form, and one lesson I've learned is that romance does take effort, at least after a while. But it usually pays to make that effort, at least now and then.
The "consumed" thing is just an intense form of romance. Too many people mistake it as the be-all and end-all of love, which is why so many of their relationships crash and burn: it's fun if you can get it, but not sustainable.
The other half is the partnership, which IMO is just as important for any serious relationship. That's the quiet and content part that exists as much in the silences as in the words.
A long-term relationship needs some of each. The balance between romance and partnership is different in every case, but one shouldn't entirely neglect either...
The sweeping in-love feeling is wonderful, but tends to be relatively fleeting. After the initial rush (whose intensity can vary quite a bit) it's something to be harbored carefully, and consciously rekindled now and then. This is basically romance in its purest form, and one lesson I've learned is that romance does take effort, at least after a while. But it usually pays to make that effort, at least now and then.
The "consumed" thing is just an intense form of romance. Too many people mistake it as the be-all and end-all of love, which is why so many of their relationships crash and burn: it's fun if you can get it, but not sustainable.
The other half is the partnership, which IMO is just as important for any serious relationship. That's the quiet and content part that exists as much in the silences as in the words.
A long-term relationship needs some of each. The balance between romance and partnership is different in every case, but one shouldn't entirely neglect either...
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