Love Forum Advice, Marital Advice, Divorce Advice, Dating Advice

Love and relationships aren’t what they used to be. Does it sound like a cliché? Well, probably it is, but being a cliché doesn’t necessarily make it true. And it also doesn’t make it better or worse than before.

Let’s face it: the great love stories people read about in books or see in movies may happen in real live, but they’re the exception, not the rule. Most people live in an illusion, which is fed to them since they are small kids, by books and movies and fairy tales: the illusion of the perfect lover, of the “happily ever after”, of love and relationships that last decades without a bump in the road, as it used to be a century ago, in the times of their grandparents. The problem is none of the above exists.

Human nature hasn’t changed that much over the ages; we still react to the same basic instincts and hormones as we did 500 years ago. Society, however, has evolved greatly, particularly in the last century or so, changing the way we look at love and relationships. Not so long ago, marriages were supposed to be forever, not in the sense that love would last for all eternity but rather because there were no escape doors, no divorces, no separations. When a person was married it was for good, no matter what problems and divisions would occur between the couple. However, there were bad moments, but all the bad things happened behind closed doors, therefore providing the illusion of eternal happiness.

The truth is long-term love and relationships demand a lot of work and effort from both people involved and don’t just happen by magic. In the ever-lasting lure of Prince Charming or Miss Perfect, people often forget that what makes relationships last, now as before, is love and commitment. And that will not change.

Love and relationships of our time aren’t that much different from the past; men and women are still the same and still want the same things. What has truly changed is the way society, as a whole, perceives these concepts. In most relationships of the past there were problems and conflicts and arguments just as today, but these didn’t make it to novels and movies; only the chivalry did, and that is an illusion that haunts our modern day love. For more information, please visit our Love Forums.