Do you understand...

"As a relationship ripens toward greater intimacy, what becomes increasingly important is authenticity - our ability to give up trying to make a good impression and begin to reveal things about ourselves that are honest even if unsavory... If two people are genuinely fond of each other, they will have a more satisfying and exciting relationship over a longer period of time if they are able to express both positive and negative feelings than if they are completely "nice" to each other at all times."

- Elliot Aronson

"We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love"

- Freud

"True friends tune into one another's needs even when reciprocation is impossible."

- Clark, et. al

At its best, marriage is a friendship, sealed by commitment.

When someone loves you for a long, long time," explained the wise, old Skin Horse to the Velveteen Rabbit, "not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real...."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," [the rabbit] asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to the people who don't understand."

- The Velveteen Rabbit