Life, Love and Whatnot

Life, Love and Whatnot.

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I came across a survey a while ago, it was one of those “what would you do” questions , in this instance it was a burning house example, interestingly the man said that he would rescue his wife before his children, funnily, conversely, the wife said that she would rescue her children before her husband! Lol, but really this piece is not so much about the above this is just to set the tone.

The above example did make me think though about the complex relationships that we have with the people around us, so, let’s set the stage and then examine them one by one, first who typically do we form relationships with, well by my reckoning there are four sets of relationships that the average person forms.
We form relationships with our family, a relationship with our friends and a relationship with the people within our sphere of functioning (work colleagues church members, our local store etc.), so now let’s examine those one by one.

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• Family:
  The relationships that you form with your family is the first relationship that you do form, within that of course there are all sorts of dynamics , however, universally the biggest bond that most people form (especially men) is with their mother (Oedipus complex). Your relationship with your family is the first relationship that you form and in most instances the most important relationship that you have.

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• Friends:
  The second most important relationship that you do have has to be with your friends, these are people that you have met through the course of life (school, work, etc.) and bonded with, this relationship is also very important, if you form good friendships then you have afforded yourself a circle of confidants that you can share joys and concerns with.

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• Work Colleagues:
  The third relationship that you are likely to form as an adult is with people you work with, here the dynamics are different, office politics, how to position yourself strategically both for self preservation and for growth, matching your output to expectation – the boss is always right and all that.

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• Others:
  The fourth relationship is also important though perhaps not as much as the first three, these are relationships that you form with the people within your sphere of existence, with this I mean the local shop you frequent, people you meet routinely in the course of your day to day functioning etc. There are only really a couple of obligations to this particular relationship and these are civility and politeness.

So those in my view are the four types of relationships that an average person would typically have, however, there is a relationship that supersedes all these and that is your relationship with your spouse, your relationship with your spouse goes over and above any other type of relationship that you will have including your relationship with your mother, the person’s whose best interest is best served by your wellbeing is your spouse, if you do well the person who is first and most impacted is your spouse and if you do not do as well as you have hoped ditto, your spouse over and above all else is the person who is most vested and most invested in you.

Leave your thoughts in the comments section, let’s get a conversation going there.