Why Relationships Matter

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My day began with clients venting frustration toward their loved ones' limitations and ended with cocktails among friends doing much the same. The symmetry stayed with me.

What strikes me in both settings is how rarely people name what they are actually feeling. No one says fear. But underneath all that reactivity, that is exactly what I see — a quiet, persistent sense of vulnerability, as if the other person's limits could take something irreplaceable away from them. And in a way, they can. If I become unable to show affection toward my wife — even while loving her deeply — my limitation becomes her burden too. The limits we carry do not stay contained to us; they ripple outward.

And yet. A world with no tolerance for human limitation would be a world without........

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