How to Make Love Last Forever
And how we fall out of love.
A quick update before we begin- I’m in the final stages of editing The Stoic Manual: Meditations on the Art of Living, a collection of 150 Stoic meditations on living well. It’ll be released soon and included free for all Annual and Lifetime members.
Welcome! The Stoics understood that our closest relationships test the virtues we claim to possess. This piece looks at what happens when anger goes unspoken, pride gets in the way, and two people forget how to meet each other honestly- and what it takes to find their way back so that love can last forever. Prior editions on this Relationship Series include- Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person, When Does an Affair Begin? & Three Questions to Ask Before You Leave or Stay in a Relationship. Let’s get into today’s lesson.
How to Make Love Last Forever
“I do not love this one if I am unwilling to hurt his feelings.”- Seneca, Letters 25
In 1932, Edward Hopper painted a man and a woman sitting in the same room.
The man is bent over a newspaper. The woman sits at a piano in a red dress, pressing one key with a finger. They’re pretty close enough to speak. Perhaps enjoy a drink and bond. But neither looks at the other.
Hopper called the painting Room in New York. We stand outside the window, looking in on a private moment. We suspect a weird vibe between these two. Maybe something happened that evening. Or began years earlier.
People often describe the painting as a picture of marital boredom. The couple has…