What is the purpose of having a relationship? Surely it's not for the benefit of constant sex. If that's all a relationship were, I'm sure many people would be more satisfied with a life of hedonism. I mean, if that were true, people would be in relationships where sex is the defining strength of the couple, and having anything else in common would not be a concern.
Obviously, sex is not the defining factor. How about stability? I hear about so many relationships falling apart because they are too stable, too predictable, and too boring. We always hear the reason for cheating being, "I needed more excitement in my life, and you just don't do it for me anymore." So, let's cross out stability.
I think we're going about this all wrong. Constant sex? Stability? Do relationships exist to satisfy or stabalize a person? It's just so mediocre - so ordinary. Place holder, rut, and bare minimums are all words I think of when I think of that. No, relationships must exist to serve some greater purpose than sex farm and tranquilizer dart.
The idea that one person can create and invent and amount to something more than he was yesterday is such a profound idea. Imagine what could be created, invented, or achieved with two people working as a team? Even if they never produced something together, (like two painters or two scientists might) imagine what effect one another's support could bolster the other to achieve!
That is my idea of the ideal relationship: Two people who work together and support each other and challenge each other to be more than what they were before. You want nothing more than for your partner to realize their dreams and aspirations, and the same goes for needing the same support in your own life when you pursue your own.
I guess this goes back to my alternate theory for the 4th dimension in "Flatland". I believe the next dimension is always something you can't see at face value, but you always know that there's something greater than what is apparent. I believe the next dimension is always the union of the previous dimension - many points make a line, many lines make a plane, many planes make an object, etc. So, for humans, what would be the answer if you united all of us and focused our efforts? What would that be? I like to think it is spirit. I like to think that it is the essence of faith, and along with that, perseverance, motivation, will, and hope.
The union of two people is but a microcosm of this grand concept, but within them lies all the possibility of an entire civilization.
As I always tell my students, why get a "C" on a test when you can get an "A"?
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Your insights are very profound. Here's a few more thoughts to chew on from Bernard Shaw.
"Love can't give any man new gifts. It can only heighten the gifts he was born with."
"Those who talk most about the blessings of marriage...are the very people who declare that if the chain were broken and the prisoners left free to choose, the whole social fabric would fly asunder. You cannot have the argument both ways. If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in?"
"Well, sir, a man should have one woman to prevent him from thinking too much about women in general."
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