Love: Choice, Expectations, and Compromise

Love should be straightforward. It includes mutual understanding and compromise by involved parties to maximise the benefit of a relationship journey. The rules seem easy enough to apply but this depends on the strength of the soul and the willingness of the mind to resist biological programming.

These days there is constant chatter about what it is a man, and/or woman, should be. There’s an expectation from either gender when it comes to behaviour. Some are wholesome and some are not. On the whole, the idea that a person should be a certain kind of way due to what is considered a ‘societal norm’, doesn’t exactly give the concept of choice adequate independence.

Are you who you are because you are? Or are you who you are because you choose? And to what extent is your choice influenced by who you are and/or what you choose? These seeming existential questions hover at the back of many minds.

I reckon we all wish to simply just love, but it is a tango that requires we constantly adjust ourselves to the other person. As the music of life plays on and on, our moves should be modified to complement our overall performance. Both parties must constantly sync up to gain the very best from each other while pleasing the audience.

What I want and what you want should line up to become what ‘we’ want. It should be simple enough but isn’t because how often do we truly want what the other person wants? And how long do we cling to disappointment when we are made to compromise? The answers to these questions paint a clear enough picture.

Love is easy but the heart of man is not.