Relations

Dear 42,

So, I was just having a shower, and was contemplating the nature of relationships. It occurred to me that there is a political component and a... trust/faith component, and then a love/desire/need component as well... it'd like to turn all those slashes into a single term... what do they have in common...

Too many ellipses I know, moving on.

There is clearly a political force at work in most all relationships, and by political I mean, primarily, balance of power. Everyone has to feel that they have some power, internal and external. Families get leveraged, finances, history, friends, strength... leverage leverage leverage. And that's the politics of nations I'm talking about, not so much people. But I'm sure you see that there are commonalities.

Surely happiness doesn't exist in purely political relationships between individuals. Faith, and Trust are the words that came to mind, golden Ideals that ring pure and true. Clearly they are separate and counter to the forces of politics within relationships. And yet, I can hardly imagine a relationship that doesn't have both.

I think maybe politics are a reaction to inequality (a play to get the upper hand), and that when tranquility exist, and therefore politicking is re-missive, other, favorable, traits become dominant.

But you have to have love/desire/need... well love and desire at least, but those often imbalance things and create a power imbalance.

Thus imbalance of power disrupts tranquility and leads to loss of faith/honesty... hmm. I want a different word for that word/word too, something that means both of them and more... Maybe it's peace... But I'm slightly turned off by the hipness of the word.

Power I think is necessary, to avoid stasis if nothing else. But how it's balanced... seems much more awkward than it should be.

Just a thought