He leaves disgusting old apple cores everywhere. And yet...

The New York Times' "Modern Love" section can be hit or miss. Sometimes I want to jam something sharp and pointy into the eyes of the douches who write such shit. Today, however, I very much enjoyed this particular take on marriage, most of which I heartily agree with. In particular the idea of "and yet", is a lovely one I intend to remember.

"In Zen Buddhism, meditation helps practitioners detach from the cycle of desire and suffering. In my brief stint as a religious studies major, I preferred Pure Land Buddhism, an alternate path to enlightenment for people who (as one professor told us) may find it difficult to abandon worldly pain and passion because those things can also yield such beauty and comfort. He summed it up as: “Life is suffering — and yet.”
"I think about that all the time: “And yet.” Such hedging, to me, is good religion and also the key to a successful marriage. In the course of being together forever, you come across so many “and yets,” only some of them involving domestic air travel.
I love this person, and yet she’s such a mess. And yet when I’m sick, he’s not very nurturing. And yet we don’t want the same number of children. And yet I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be single again. The longer you are with someone, the more big and little “and yets” rack up."

You can read the whole thing here.