hook, line and complacent...

i absolutely love, love, love this couple.  you can tell after what looks like a lifetime of togetherness they are still in love.  i love all their wrinkles, gray hair, and the immense amount of history in their faces.  i sure hope this is what i look like, although i want my teeth, with my partner when i am old(er).

 

i know far too many people in complacent relationships.  they act more like roommates carrying out daily chores than two people who want to share their lives with each other.  i know i've been obsessed with the passionate couple of my dreams but can this couple exist in today's world? 

 

i was having a discussion with a friend about this very thing, she asked, "if you start a relationship full of passion can you maintain it?  if you start a relationship with lack luster passion can you obtain it?"  i told her that i think it can be maintained, but only if both parties want it and work at it everyday.  i also think that it can be obtained but that takes a whole lot more work and starts with the person who wants it.  did hopeless romantical optimist flash in your head?  it did in mine too.

 

it seems to me that when you are getting to know someone you spend a ton of energy to attract and keep their attention.  through playfulness, flirting, a spur of the moment rendezvous, phone conversations that go long into the night or through small gestures.  however once you have "hooked" that person it seems like all those little extras start to wane.  why?  complacency.  we fall into the mundane routine of life and forget to nurture the reason why we are in the mundane routine, each other.

 

again, i am no expert.  you are listening to a divorced woman who can't keep a relationship alive to save her life, but i am hopeful that my hunch is correct.  which brings me back to the adorable couple above.  i am going to bet that those two have had many ups, downs and in between boring moments.  there were probably times where they wanted to call it quits and times where they were so in love nothing could stop them.  i can only imagine that through everything they stayed true to their commitment to each other.

 

wouldn't it be funny if all my hypothesis were horse shit and the true story behind these two people is they are newlyweds enjoying the newness and intoxication of young love?