Pax on both houses: "Why You Will Marry The Wrong Person" - "The True Hard Work Of Love And Relationships"

Sunday, August 5, 2018

"Why You Will Marry The Wrong Person" - "The True Hard Work Of Love And Relationships"

"Why You Will Marry The Wrong Person" | made w/ Imgflip meme maker

"The True Hard Work Of Love And Relationships"

"On Being's" Krista Tippett Interviews Philosopher Alain de Botton

https://onbeing.org/programs/alain-de-botton-the-true-hard-work-of-love-and-relationships-aug2018/

Excerpt:

MS. TIPPETT: I happened to see your tweet at the end of 2016 when The New York Times released its most-read articles of the year. And your “Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person” was number one, which is really extraordinary, the most-read article in a year of the Brexit vote, the presidential election, war, refugee crisis. I wonder what that tells you about us as a species.

MR. DE BOTTON: It was deeply fascinating and quite extraordinary. And apparently, it was first by a long way. It’s just peculiar. Look, first of all, it tells us that we have an enormous loneliness around our difficulties. One could write a follow-on piece — I may or may not — called “Why You Will Get Into the Wrong Job,” which would probably score quite highly too, and “Why You’ll Have the Wrong Child,” and “Why You’ll Go on the Wrong Vacation,” and “Why Your Body Will Be the Wrong Shape,” and “Why You’ll Think You Live in the Wrong Country,” etc. And in a way, we need solace for the sense that we have gone wrong in an area, whatever it may be, where perfection was possible.

And anyone who comes along and says, “You know, it’s normal that you are suffering. Life is suffering,” is doing a quite unusual thing in our culture, which is so much about optimism. It sounds grim. It is, in fact, enormously consoling, and alleviating, and helpful in a culture which is oppressive in its demands for perfection. So I think a certain kind of pessimistic realism, which is totally compatible with hope, totally compatible with laughter, good humor, a sense of fun — it doesn’t have to be dour.

MS. TIPPETT: It’s how comedy and tragedy belong together.

MR. DE BOTTON: Exactly. I’m a great fan of gallows humor. We’re all on our way to the gallows in one way or another, and we can hug and give each other laughs and point out the more pleasant sides as we head towards the scaffold.

On Being has its origins in a public radio show called Speaking of Faith, which was created by Krista Tippett, piloted in the early 2000s, and launched nationally at American Public Media in 2003. A journalist and former diplomat who had studied theology, Krista saw a black hole in media where intelligent conversation about religion, meaning, and moral imagination might be. Her show evolved into On Being and a pursuit of the ancient and enduring human questions that gave rise to our spiritual traditions and resonate through every institution anew in this century: what does it mean to be human, how do we want to live, and who will we be to each other?

https://onbeing.org/