Where is the love?

I'm afraid society has failed.

I am a people watcher by nature. Maybe I'm nosey, but I have always been intrigued by how people "work" and what makes them tick. Yesterday, the gang and I were out for lunch and I observed a couple who, if I had to make an educated guess, were partaking in an extra-marital bite to eat. Hopefully I'm way off the rector scale with that presumption, but what was explicitly clear was his lack of respect for her. From the moment they walked through the front door, his needs, wants, and whims were made priority while she was made to be his servant (and I'm not talking healthy humility here, trust me...)

Fast forward a few hours and Leann and I found ourselves at a local bar enjoying some welcomed adult time. It was an odd set-up, so we sat on one side of a glass wall, while other tables lined the other side. The man on the other side visually inspected every crevice of my body...except my face. Back on our side of the fishbowl, there was a couple who were hard to miss, with all thanks to young "love." They enjoyed each other most of the evening, but when the bill came, she enjoyed her own tab. Maybe I'm rushing to assumption too quickly, but I see this trend all too often.

I may sound like I'm spewing "man disgust," but I'm honestly not trying to attack anyone. What I am spewing is my disappointment in society as a whole. Why do we allow ourselves to treat our partners like yesterday's trash, be it man or woman? When did relationships loose their zeal in totality?

Divorce is at an all-time high, domestic abuse has sky-rocketed, and the human race seems to be digressing as a whole when it comes to how we treat our supposed loved ones. There must be an answer...

My proposition? I'm so glad you asked! Parents need to stand up and start doing what they were meant to do in the first place- love their spouses and live an example worthy of repeating, and loving, teaching, training, their offspring would be a good next step. Educators needs to quit turning a blind eye to bullying and start demanding respect in the classrooms and hallways of our school systems. Churches need to start teaching their congreations how to be lovers with the same tenacity they approach issues like premartial sex, and the media needs to adopt some standards, period.

The definition of insanity is doing to the same action repeatedly, but expecting a different result. If we don't start standing up, breaking the mold, and putting an end to these viscious cycles, I'm not sure we'll ever see profitable change.