"To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering one must not love. But then one suffers from not loving. Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer. To suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy then is to suffer. But suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness."
Woody Allen
I found this interesting quote on the website www.affirmations-for-success.com. My question to you: Do you believe it’s true that love involves suffering?
It seems difficult to take relationship advice from someone with the checkered past that Woody Allen comes with, but his past does not necessarily preclude potential wisdom. After all, perhaps he has learned something from some of his own life circumstances, including the long-term love affair he has had with the adopted daughter of his former life partner, Mia Farrow. Then again, perhaps his circumstances are so unusual that they are not worth going into in depth here, because how much could you or I truly relate to him?
What we can take away from it is the question about whether love involves suffering. I like the quote, in part, because it’s not overly idealistic about relationships. It’s my belief that two lovers share complex emotions – some good, some not so good. Think for a moment about someone you love or have loved. Did you ever suffer in this relationship? Odds are that the relationship involves or had involved a period of emotional pain. Why? The people we invest in the most are the ones who can hurt us most deeply. In the end, we must all acknowledge just how complex and fragile love can be.
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