People chase happiness instead of contentment. And we've also been conditioned to think that love does not require work. That it will "just be". So if there's

People chase happiness instead of contentment. And we've also been conditioned to think that love does not require work. That it will "just be". So if there's friction, well, obviously it's not meant to be. Because if it was, we wouldn't have this friction. But everything is work. Nothing ever ends. We are in a constant state of change. Marriage isn't the end of relationships, it's a commitment to doing the work with someone. So obviously, I don't subscribe to the school of thought that relationships should be easy. And my frustrations with my partner are sometimes things I need to confront about myself. Things I need to change about how I interact with the world. And of course, there are things they should work on. And things we should work on together. I think that's part of how kids can cement marriages. Kids are obviously work. Sometimes so much so there's just not enough time or energy to care about the friction that would have collapsed a relationship previously. So you learn to be content with things. And you learn to work at relationships. Because you'll finally meet someone who is way more intractable than you are. Because you can't really punt a kid to the street. You have to make this work.