Sam Keen writes:

"In spite of the deep seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important than love: success, prestige, money, power,---almost all our energy is used for learning how to achieve these aims and almost none to learn the art of loving"

Almost one out of two people who get married are going to get divorced…and…who really knows how many other people either feel trapped, disillusioned or greatly disappointed in their relationships. I suspect, it may be at least another twenty five per cent of the population…which….translates into a lot of people aren’t particularly happy or content in their relationships. There are no doubt many potential reasons for this current state of affairs, some, which may have little or nothing to do with the nature of relationships or the individuals involved. Years ago when I was wrestling with my own marriage challenges I concluded that there were numerous forces “outside” of my marriage that were creating tensions within my marriage. Some of these forces included demands and expectations at work and unrealistic expectations of marriage that are regularly perpetuated by the media, popular authors, and various religious communities…but…despite these outside influences it is my opinion that maybe the greatest culprit is the lack of education regarding “the art of loving”…I use the word art to imply and suggest that imagination and creativity are two of the primary ingredients needed in the relationship dance. …Learning the art of loving is a challenge because we are generally socialized to assume that relationships can be improved or fixed by simply following a set of time honored principles or formulas…which…may sell a lot of books but often may not work and lead to gradual disillusionment because they lack the needed ingredients of imagination and creativity…I concede that imagination and creativity are difficult to explain because their applications are limitless and vary from one person to another…which…requires time, effort, and practice on our part. Most people prefer what they consider “time honored” formula’s and principles because it requires less time and effort because all you do is follow what a popular author or book tells you to do and this approach is very tempting in a society where we are all pressed for time…but…buyer beware…while there is much one can gain from popular authors and books, without creativity and imagination, the relationship dance is reduced to a science and without art I am afraid our dance routine becomes too predictable which leads to boredom and may help explain why a lot of couples began searching for greener pastures…