Every fairy tale we ever read as kids ended with the princess meeting her prince and living happily ever after as if finding a lover/ partner was the impetus to live happily. So we have this notion that the search for a partner is the treacherous bit but there after, it’s a breeze.
"...relationships bring out who we truly are...", this was a great takeaway for me as its so true but I never realized it until I read it and now it feels self-evident :). So the corollary to this is that if you want to improve your relationships the starting point is to improve yourself as a person , instead we spend a lot of time futilely on changing others.
Also you are correct that due to our movies we are conditioned to believe all the "hard work" happens before the marriage and married life is one easy stretch of happiness....nothing is farther from the truth as we realize later...I think only Mani Ratnam has explored post married life challenges...I feel what popular culture does not teach we as parents should so that our kids have a realistic view of life...but maybe its naïve to imagine we can "teach" these things to kids...
Great post as usual !
"...relationships bring out who we truly are...", this was a great takeaway for me as its so true but I never realized it until I read it and now it feels self-evident :). So the corollary to this is that if you want to improve your relationships the starting point is to improve yourself as a person , instead we spend a lot of time futilely on changing others.
Also you are correct that due to our movies we are conditioned to believe all the "hard work" happens before the marriage and married life is one easy stretch of happiness....nothing is farther from the truth as we realize later...I think only Mani Ratnam has explored post married life challenges...I feel what popular culture does not teach we as parents should so that our kids have a realistic view of life...but maybe its naïve to imagine we can "teach" these things to kids...