Quote of the day...just in time for Valentine's Day

Why do certain people get attracted to one another? How can this attraction get sustained? Trust which is an ability to tolerate the unknown is a big ingredient to a healthy relationship,along with security,safety, predictability but just as important is an element of surprise, the unexpected, the novelty, the mystery. These are the contradictions, the opposites that make this world such a dynamic and interesting place...

Here is an example extracted from an interview with Barack and Michelle Obama for a French newspaper Le Monde:

"If you look deep into her eyes, there’s a certain vulnerability. In any case, I see it even if most don’t realize it: she goes through life tall, beautiful, confident, very able…There’s a part of her that is fragile, young, sometimes scared, and I think these are contradictions that attracted me to her. And she makes me very happy. She is very familiar to me and so I can be myself around her, she knows me well, I completely trust her, but at the same time in certain respects she remains a mystery to me."

"Sometimes, when we’re lying together,I look at her and I feel dizzy with the realization that here is another distinct person from me, who has memories, origins, thoughts, feelings that are different from my own. That tension between familiarity and mystery meshes something strong between us. Even if one builds a life together based on trust, attentiveness and mutual support, I think that’s it’s important that a partner continues to surprise."

-Barack Obama about his wife Michelle.