Thursday, September 19, 2013

Bemusing (De)-Elevation Or Harmless Fun?

"She's my soulmate. My best [insert word]"
"She's one the hottest girls you will ever see.... heart of gold.... etc etc|

Are words and sentiments like these familiar in your life? Do you hear them uttered by people close to you every time they get into a relationship, have an enjoyable casual encounter, or even a booking with a provider? Heavens forbid, do you even act like that?

Over the years I have reflected on whether such intense, immediate, emotions-laden elevations of people's new partners/interlocutors (i.e. partner/"converser" in the sexual conversation) are just relatively harmless, well-meaning expressions of gratitude that will nonetheless be rationally tempered without harm eventually or whether these are harmful and even de-valuing to the subject of the supposed praise.

A theme that repeats over and over is how the "praisers" tend to often (at least initially) believe that they have hit the jackpot almost every time. Given how most longitudinal studies of human relationships in particular tend to show that around 30 to 50% become unhappy or even very unhappy in their relationships despite choosing to remain, such individuals must be either seriously lucky (i.e. in constantly meeting such great people) and/or also stupid (i.e. in letting them go in the case of long term relationships), if all their praises and sentiments are taken to their "logical" conclusion.

Clearly, there are flaws in that process of thinking and it worries me that people don't see how dangerous this can be. When people refuse to acknowledge that all of us have flaws, things aren't always swimmingly-wonderful, and that enormous levels of attraction (which are mostly chemicals in the brain playing tricks with you anyway) rarely last, we begin to devalue those experiences and people that are now "cold" to us when the more level-headed feelings are perhaps far better in-tune with reality in the first place.

Is this over-thinking or have I just not experienced my own kind of "fire" yet?





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