Selfishness and loyalty are two human frailties and qualities that mark personal relationships, especially in marriage. The Christian priest, while blessing the nuptials, ends it by saying, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” Yet, it doesn’t call a third person to put marriage asunder. Disloyalty and selfishness between couples make them clog the family courts in pursuit of a divorce.
That takes us to Shakespeare in As You Like It — “Men are April when they woo, December when they wed; maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.” Both are blind when they fall in love. But some keep their eyes open and retain their sanity and judgment, as reflected in the following two instances reported on the same date (24/7/19) — one from India and the second from the US.
In the Indian case, a 25-year-old girl donated one of her kidneys to her mother, after calling off her engagement to her fiancé who opposed it. Even the doctors were reluctant to take up the case as it could be risky. But they finally went through the procedure and both daughter and mother are reported to have done well.
In the second instance, a self-proclaimed Instagram model broke up with her boyfriend while they were vacationing in Mexico because he wanted her to post his pictures on her account. The 22-year-old woman wrote on the website that she has a ‘pretty successful Instagram account’ and posting pictures of her boyfriend would adversely affect the engagement with her followers — resulting in losing money. In both cases, love was not blind. But discerning readers will see the difference between the two — which is not being spelled out here. Also, in both of these cases, the fair gender initiates action. It can also be the other way around. Being heroic or angelic is not the monopoly of any one gender.
