Love :-)

[kiki5711]

With age and suffering comes wisdom--one hopes.

I agree with you kiki, that love alone isn't enough. But there being no love and only practicalities isn't enough either.

Oh, absolutely! Without love, from birth to death, without neurishing love as we grow, we lack to become human only to function with malnourished brain acting out on impulse becasue of that lack of love, again bringing us to self destruction.

It's a fine line and everyone deals with it differently. This is where some people can take one same experience and make good out of it, while some others take it to out of limits of hell harming themselves in the process and others that stand in their path.

[Pappa]

According to whatever I read, the nobility married for the reasons you allude to, like politics, wealth, etc, and dabbling in romantic liasons with troubadors was their relief from loveless pairings. The troubadors' songs and poems were eventually written down and gradually evolved into romantic plays and novels. The upper classes would have been the only ones likely to have sufficient money, literacy and leisure time to enjoy and support the art(s). I would guess that the ideal of romantic love spread from the nobility to the lower classes, but I could be wrong about that, of course.

The upper classes in Britain always had (and mostly/often still have) an unsaid agreement between spouses. Once a male heir is produced they're both free to go fuck whoever they please, as long as they keep it quiet enough to avoid scandal.

[kiki5711]

Also, now that I think about it more, her research seems to have been done mostly with what's considered (or was considered) the "normal relationships ie. white/straight/western culture". She doesn't seem to take in account of all the different cultures where she would find totally different results based on their beliefs and tradition, on the same subject.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

According to whatever I read, the nobility married for the reasons you allude to, like politics, wealth, etc, and dabbling in romantic liasons with troubadors was their relief from loveless pairings. The troubadors' songs and poems were eventually written down and gradually evolved into romantic plays and novels. The upper classes would have been the only ones likely to have sufficient money, literacy and leisure time to enjoy and support the art(s). I would guess that the ideal of romantic love spread from the nobility to the lower classes, but I could be wrong about that, of course.

This is where Myrdeen Anderson's theory that the Church encouraged, if not created, the idea of romantic love. They could manipulate people to some extent to circumvent the noble's arranged (i.e., political) marriages by promoting "love of the heart". She could do better justice to this than I could, of course. And I wasn't 100% sold on it at the time I took her class, but I regurgitated the proper words on the tests. (She gave me bonus points for a study of which side of the hall we walk on.)

[Gallstones]

Awwww...

Sweethearts reunite after nearly 60 yrs

[kiki5711]

Awwww...

Sweethearts reunite after nearly 60 yrs

awwwww, how adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!! great story!!

[Gallstones]

http://theoatmeal.com/horrible2

[kiki5711]

http://theoatmeal.com/horrible2