The famous biblical book alludes to God only once. Historically, though, most interpreters have argued the poem’s about love between the divine and his people.
It’s not logical to believe your relationship is “meant to be.” But believing in destined love may have evolved as a way to keep couples together long enough to reproduce and raise children.
‘Soup songs,’ a genre of Tamil breakup songs, refer to a man’s emotional state after being dumped and are full of blame for women. A more nuanced approach to love would be better for everyone.
After the intensity of early courtship, even a healthy, happy relationship can feel lackluster. Psychology researchers have ideas for what can help you perk up your relationship rather than give up.
Even when everything’s going great in your relationship, you likely harbor some ambivalence toward your partner deep down. Psychology research suggests it’s not just OK, but normal.
The old myth that it’s impossible for educated women over 40 to get married still lingers. Actually, educated women are doing OK in the U.S. In China, however, the story changes.
In early modern times, wooing happened at balls and markets and in churches; while sex was obtained in bathhouses, inns, brothels and alleyways. Art tells the story.
Perhaps we can think of the love letter and other gestures of romantic love as forms or techniques that mediate the violence of time, dispossession and exclusion.