Since the beginning of time, themes of romantic relationships have dominated the stories we tell. The first and most well known Bible story is about the relationship between Adam and Eve. The story goes that Adam was alone in the garden and begged God for a companion. In the Bible, God created man, but man’s humanity was not complete without the love of another like himself. This basic human value is reflected in religions across the globe, and in our secular stories as well.

Nowadays, relationships, their creation, preservation, and demise, have spawned numerous multi-billion dollar industries. Everybody has a book to sell, a movie to screen, a song to sing or a course to offer on the subject. There are workshops to take, therapy sessions to experience and training to undergo to keep things working smoothly. And if all that fails there are squadrons of hungry divorce lawyers and judges to make things come to end - happy or not.

Woody Allen has made dozens of movies exploring relationships and in the end his philosophy can be summed up with the prophetic words, “Relationships are painful and they all end too quickly.” The classic sci-fi novel, 1984, has as its main premise the idea that in the future there would be no need for what we now call relationships, just a government sponsored pairing up system to preserve the natural order of things. And even in that society, the books main characters sneak off to have some good old fashioned relationship fun, which ultimately gets them in trouble with Big Brother.

Why all the fuss? What drives people to behave in this most unseemly and dangerous manner just to hold hands with someone and cuddle up on a cold night? For, the answer to that question, look to all the books, songs, movies, and poems about love.