Mark Radcliffe thinks you should skip the supermodel and go for the one who loves you even on your worst days.
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We all have our own romanticized notions of what it will be like when we find true love. How it’ll go. What it’ll feel like. What he or she will look like, sound like, act like. Even kiss like. And every once in a while, we actually meet that person. There they are! In the bar standing next to us! Or down the hall at work! Or in the line at the bookstore! They’re perfect. Everything we imagined. And so we engage. And chase. And pursue. And assume our very best behavior.And fight for a chance at that perfect union we’ve imagined in our heads for so long.And sometimes it works! We get their phone number. And a date! And a second date! And sometimes it even goes a month or two! But then at some point, it runs afoul.
What once seemed effortless becomes arduous.
The perfect conversations suddenly don’t flow as easily.
The shine has worn off the apple. It’s work, now. And who has time for that?
And here’s where many a relationship come to an unfortunate end.
Because the other person thinks it should only be constant magic. That anything else is merely a false symbol.
But we still chase them! We want it back! We think of what we can do to possibly salvage this sinking ship. Should we change ourselves? Adjust our behavior? Change our whole personality? After all: this is love. Surely it’s worth sacrificing for, no?
No, I’m here to say. It’s not.
Because there’s a big, horrible idea out there in the world of romance:
That if it’s not hard, it’s not real.
True romance must be earned, we believe. Struggled for. Barely survived.
If it comes easy, it’s wrong. Shallow. Too simple.
We must suffer for love. We must cry with certain regularity. Lose our faith time and time again only to barely regain it again.
I humbly submit that such a belief is the romantic equivalent of 100% grade-A bullshit.
Perhaps it comes from our culture’s puritanical beginnings. The notion that anything great is worth suffering for.
And while I agree that love takes work, patience and forgiveness, I don’t think it should involve perpetual, ongoing damage-control.
If the relationship you’re in takes constant, ongoing acrobatic maneuvers to keep it afloat, then it’s not a relationship; it’s a doomsday project.
Relationships, in general, should be easy.
If they’re taking a ton of work, a ton of the time, something’s wrong.
Chances are either that:
A) One (or both) of you is not a stable enough person to even be in a relationship to begin with, and you need to go off on your own to learn how to keep yourself perfectly happy with nothing more than yourself to sustain you. (And yes, I’ve been this person many times.)
B) One of you has unrealistic expectations of what the other is supposed to provide them on a regular basis. (And yes, I’ve been this person, too.) They think you’re supposed to keep them constantly entertained. Or wined and dined. Or sexually pleasured. Or emotionally rescued. Or financially bailed out.
Neither of which is sustainable.
Which is why I say the following:
Don’t chase the person you can barely hold on to when you’re at the top of your game.
Seek out the person you can be happy with even when you’re having a bad day. Or week. Or month.
Because those days will happen, many, many times over the course of a relationship.
And the person who’s only happy with you when you’re a superhero will not stick around when you finally become a mortal again and need them to be there for you, instead.
So skip the supermodel. The pursuit of own your personal Jessica Alba or David Beckham. It might be heaven for a week or two, but they’d probably dump you as soon as you failed to be the emblem of perfection for more than 2-3 seconds in a row.
That perfect pairing with the Mister or Miss Right we’ve all imagined in our hearts isn’t going to survive the endless ordinary days that real life is fraught with.
The person who’s truly right for you is probably cleverly disguised as the one you work with every day. Or the one who you’ve casually known in your circle of friends for five years. Who has seen you at your best and at your worst. And is still there, a big believer in your immense potential. And is probably an amazing kisser if you’d just give them a chance.
That’s the person it’s going to be genuinely easy with over the long haul.
So the next time you’re looking for the one, don’t look up on some stage or pedestal for some shining realization of your fantasies. Turn around and look behind you. At the person you might have overlooked. The person who is quietly everything you need them to be and more.
You just have to give them a deeper look.
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—Photo iStock
Not connected to the article at all. Read this with bourbon in hand, while brubeck is playing in the background.
Then saw the author’s weakenesses. Hehe. I drive a stick shift. Hehehe. 🙂
Perhaps the lady in the illustration shouldn’t look so much like a supermodel.
This is minor but it bugs me the illustration is of an attractive woman going for a man. This seems to happen a lot in advertisements and TV shows. When are we gonna get some model-esque men going for some realistically proportioned women?
Yes, yes, yes, yes. This is a much needed reminder that the nonsense we see in every single romantic-comedy will only skew our standards and come back to bite us in the butt when we finally realize how wrong we’ve been about love and relationships.
-Valentine
Flux: Encountering Adulthood
http://www.fluxforum.com
Mark, I agree with you but some other significant aspects beg consideration. What appeals to us or gives us a positive experience is not just a function of the object of desire. It is more importantly related to our state of mind. The journey is in many ways more important than the journey. An apple from a fruit bowl on the dining table doesn’t give the dame experience as one from an orchard after a few miles walk. The sunrises for us everyday but the sunrise on holiday is much more special. It is a function of the beauty of… Read more »
Completely agree. The wisest advice I ever got was, “Marry someone with whom you see yourself still having amazing conversations in 30 years.”
It is also important to note that ensuring dopamine is still produced and released is a factor in retaining that ” in love” feeling. Doing novel things together (they don’t have to be ingenious or complicated) releases dopamine, which helps the person associate that ” good feeling” with their partner.
Well said! But as an amateur student of the Puritans, I offer this gentle corrective: You said: “Perhaps it comes from our culture’s puritanical beginnings. The notion that anything great is worth suffering for.” And I say: Nah. Despite the stereotypes that have built up around the Puritans over the years, their view of romance is much closer to the clear-eyed ideal of this column than to the “suffering romantic” trope. The Puritans’ view would be close to the wonderfully warm-hearted and cool-headed views of Jane Austen. On the other hand, the suffering romantic is the fruit of the Gothic… Read more »
like it a lot 🙂
I think the author’s main point is – two people who truly belong to each other “loves “- in its truest essence.He is not saying that when the relationship stops becoming easy that it isn’t meant to be. I think what he is try to point out is that – everything should flow naturally. If things become stagnant somewhere as it would many many times in their lives – the love should be able to sustain the complication. Both naturally agree to letting love flow again… And again. The way in which both agree to work things out is what… Read more »
There is one dynamic I’ll mention, don’t be feel you aren’t attractive enough in both body and mind for those who are quite physically attractive and/or have a great personality. Take the chance, you never know your luck until you try. Don’t “settle” or purposely go for people you feel are much less attractive because you are desperate, there’s no point thinking He’s too good for men, she’s too hot, etc. Physical attraction is important to a degree, but being attracted to their personality is also very important. I say ask out a supermodel, but don’t ignore everyone else and… Read more »
I appreciate the sentiment, and agree with the premise that it’s best to choose someone who loves and “gets” the real you. But there’s one premise I have to reject: that we’re all striving for supermodels or superstar beefcake, and anyone “less” is somehow a letdown or compromise. If we’re talking fantasies, I’d chase Nicholas Kristof before I’d give David Beckham a second look. Great minds thrill me, while great bodies merely decorate the surrounding landscape. And the guy I married is no compromise. He’s my dream guy, better than all the Brad Pitts and Tom Cruises in the world.… Read more »
@Kim: “But there’s one premise I have to reject: that we’re all striving for supermodels or superstar beefcake” Not everybody, but many people on the dating scene have a strong bias towards aestethics. And this is true for BOTH genders. Many people even mistakes excitation and lust for love (not their fault, really, since it’s our biology screwing – pun intended 😉 – with us). If you’re totally out of that picture, good for you (and your mate), but don’t talk like the world is a mirror of yourself – because it’s not. You’re more the exception than the rule.… Read more »
I took the author’s point to be not to strive for the figurative supermodel, not necessarily the literal supermodel. For me, ‘supermodel’ in relationship terms would be someone who is frightfully intelligent, always proactive and witty, ambitious in a humanitarian-type way, fit and active but not in a neurotic way, on and on. It doesn’t last though to create a relationship with someone who you only truly love when they’re at their best or if they only truly love you when you are at your best. When that happens, you end up chasing the best in your relationship (which the… Read more »
Speaking as someone who has been married over 20 years to a woman I regard as my soulmate I wonder if the author has a clue. It’s good advice not to reach and a true soulmate should never be a reach. A reach might not necessarily have to do with physical appearance. It’s just someone who doesn’t feel the same way about you that you do about him or her. That part I agree with. However, any relationship that you want to succeed long-term involves work and a lot of it. Over time we mature and evolve and so does… Read more »
Thanks for a wonderful post. I’ve had love both ways, the kind you have to work for seemingly every day, and love that is deeper, peaceful even. Both times I found the deeper, more passionate and more peaceful love, I found it in someone I had known for a while, a friend who had been there for me, even while we were dating other people. One was a friend from college who I had known and been close with for two years before we stopped dating other people and started seeing each other as ‘the one’. The other was a… Read more »
@Jackie Rose: “I found it in someone I had known for a while”
Beautiful! 🙂
All my best relationships had a strong foundation in friendship. And I couldn’t imagine loving someone who wasn’t my best friend at the same time.
I think it helps thinking outside the usual “relationship binary”: friends Vs. lovers (as one opposite to the other); actually the two can mix – and they often do (like you did).
I’m thinking about writing on this relationship binary, because it doesn’t reflect the much more varied reality we’re living in.
Hey Crescendo63!
Mmm I completely agree with your thoughts on the friends vs. lovers binary. We limit ourselves by creating fictitious boxes, such as those, that don’t reflect reality. Love has never been so neat and tidy for me, and that’s okay. I try to see each person I meet as a unique blessing in my life, so I allow myself the freedom to find love anywhere and everywhere.
Here’s to mixing it up 🙂
If your lover isn’t your friend, the relationship will never last. Lover and friend are not only not mutually exclusive, they are vitally intertwined. You can be friends without becoming lovers, but if you are lovers without being friends, the relationship will fail. Friendship doesn’t have to come before romance, but it has to be there eventually (and there’s no earthly, sane reason why it can’t come first).
Very good article, Mark, thanks! I agree, many romantic ideas are eminently delusional. Very seductive, but illusory. I would add that physical attraction can be very misleading as well. – We can be attracted to who is not attracted to us (ouch!) – We can be attracted and think that’s love – but it’s something different (we mistake excitation with love) – We can be attracted to someone and not having any compatibility (and fighting constantly) – We can be attracted to someone who has nothing to do with us – apart from that. I even began to think that,… Read more »
Thank you for this! Couldn’t agree more. I’m not very interested in a superhero anyway. 🙂
Great article! After ten happily married years with the woman who is absolutely perfect for me, I agree with Marks advice of “Seek out the person you can be happy with even when you’re having a bad day. Or week. Or month.” I used to have these over romanticized notions of what my Soulmate would be like but I realized that all I ever really wanted was someone who would love me for me, be there for me unconditionally and allow me to dream big dreams. I really didn’t put a lot of emphasis on the external things, but I… Read more »
“And while I agree that love takes work, patience and forgiveness, I don’t think it should involve perpetual, ongoing damage-control.” I agree and disagree. I think that “love” (the really good lasting kind) should be BOTH easy and hard. * When you “fall” in love initially, yes, it should be the easiest thing in the world. It shouldn’t be hard-won as you say. It should mutual, irresistible, and feel entirely inevitable. * Once the honeymoon wears off (6 months +), you should be ready to work and compromise and recognize that your rose colored glasses cannot last, are not MEANT… Read more »
I haven’t read anything as true and profound as this comment in quite a while. Thanks for expressing your thoughts. This is a tricky topic. We all come with some baggage. It’s always a matter of whether my baggage goes well with his. Nothing in life is easy and “easy” should not be the goal. It’s easy to stay our of relationships. It takes skills to share your life with another person.
This article… I think I may be right… is the first to be completely neutral in terms of men and women or men and men or any sort of combination. How can you write dating advice without mentioning gender? Rather well as it turns out.
I totally agree, DB. Mark’s really talented.
Love! Love! Love it!! Great post!
So, this is great advice… for the supermodel who just passed me by!
I kid, I kid.. This is a good lesson for me. I’ve made a habit of passing over the perfectly suitable for the percieved perfection.. I need to work on that, because I’ve left a number of women in my wake who would have worked out just fine if I had actually given them more of a chance, now that I look back on it..
The downside of love is that it can not only be elusive,but transitory.
My soul mate refuses to identify himself at all the places I frequent – much like the Bourne Identity, he will first need to remember that he is indeed my soul mate.
I always knew who my soul mate was. They just never figured it out. LOL….
For some people it’s the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. For others it’s a unicorn. Oh, wait. Those are both make believe. For the happy soul mates who have found each other I say, good luck and good life.
This conversation happened an hour ago, after me complaining about being tired and in pain and behind on chores.
Me: “I feel like I’m always a mess.”
Him: “But you’re MY mess!”
Love that!