Braveheart
The Beatles sang,
“All you need is love”
and they may well have been right.
In our increasingly urban world of nuclear families and zero work-life balance, the emotional support system of a loving, caring partner becomes even more important. Ironically, it seems like the demand for such a person is going up just as the supply is diminishing. It’s not that our capacity for love and caring has diminished.
But it seems like trust is so much harder in our times. Break-ups and emotional upheavals are as commonplace as economic fluctuations. Leading a person on with no regard for commitment is a socially approved activity with the disclaimer of ‘String along or be strung along’. An abusive or cheating partner is entirely your problem. While the world clicks its collective tongue at such occurrences, that’s about as much sympathy as you’ll get, and even then, grudgingly.
And after you weather the misadventures of these cruel times, what’s left of your heart to share with another person? Multiply that by two and it makes the fate of love seem very dark, indeed. Love may be a universal need but relationships are certainly not for the faint of heart.
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A version of this appears on Yahoo! Real Beauty.
What people need to learn is- you don’t really “need” to be loved by someone else if you love yourself first and are strong hearted. There would be no cases of abusive relationships at all then. The reason people still stay in a relationship after it being abusive is because they are too afraid to let go. They don’t have a hold on themselves. They don’t trust themselves enough. Having a hold over your emotions (that’s what I meant by being strong enough) and loving yourself is more important before getting into a relationship with someone. Else, you’re spoiling two lives. People learn this eventually by experience though but there is a lot of “getting hurt” involved.
@Anu: Amen to that!