They can hold up the lie that they love you for 20 years and then dip, consequence-free.
love as men understand it, but by survival and a mere tolerance for each other, only spurred on by a youthful burst of hormones that gradually fades sometimes into contentment or divorce.
Okay, I have to address this:
Our societal concept of "Love", for both men and women, has been flawed for generations, predating the Sexual Revolution. Namely, this notion that love is a
feeling, or something mushy and sentimental.
If you're familiar with Classical or Biblical Greek, you'd know that it has four different words for "love", each with different meanings:
- Eros, meaning desire or want;
- Storge, meaning affection or "puppy love";
- philios, meaning enjoyment;
- And Agape, meaning to will the other person's good.
Agape is considered the highest and most noble of the Four Loves, because it is not looking out for itself, but for the other. Think of the parents who sacrifice lives of comfort and pleasure to raise their children.
Marriage and relationships are not a constant party. You're going to have your ups and downs.
I once heard it said that your wedding day should be the day you love your spouse
the least. That love needs to be intentionally cultivated and maintained. You shouldn't "fall in love", you should rise in love.
Love needs to be recontextualized as not an emotion or a feeling, but as an
action, a decision that is consciously made every day.
And yes, I know that's all high-falutin' idealism that's hard to come by in this messy, fallen world of ours.