MC #12 – World [3 pages]

Marriages exist in an environment, or set of circumstances  — threats, obligations and opportunities — we call the “world” and the “universe”.

The “world” we live in is the world we know and can talk about.  It is the world we understand and the culture that is our common sense.

The “universe” we live in is the objective world of causes and effects we must deduce because our senses are incapable of perceiving them. 

And, while it is true that we will never know what is “out there” because we cannot,

… we accept that it exists and affects our concerns, situations, capabilities and strategies

… to fulfill our ambitions to “live a good life”.

The World is Situations:

Threats, Obligations and Opportunities,

… and living in the world

Coping with threats that will harm us and/or thwart our intentions to survive, be free and live a good life by avoiding them …

… is part of “living in the world”.

Fulfilling obligations that if left unfulfilled will …

Trigger threats such as running out of money

Cause us to lose existing opportunities we need, such as losing our job

Cause us to forego opportunities we need but do not yet have

… is another part of “living in the world”.

Exploiting opportunities to gain the means to take satisfactory care of our most fundamental human concerns, because there is no magic,

… is also part of “living in the world”.

Marriage as a set of observations about life and practices for coping only makes sense in the environment in which the observations and practices exist. 

You could say that like business, marriage is practical philosophies in action.

And, like business philosophies, not all marriage philosophies are equally effective, strategic and competitive

… for enabling ambitious spouses to “live a good life”

… throughout their entire life,

… including 20-30 years of old age, or until spouses are about 90 years old.

If the environment changes, which means threats, obligations and opportunities change, the observations about life and practices we have invented become obsolete.  It follows, then, that spouses must concern themSelves with the drift of the world so that they can anticipate future threats, obligations and opportunities they need to avoid, fulfill and exploit. 

We call this “Reading the World”. 

The practice of Reading the World enables us to anticipate, or think and act in advance of, changes to our threats, obligations and opportunities to survive, be free and live a good life.  It helps us observe changes in politics, technology, demographics and economics in order to anticipate changes in our environment that will affect our relative power to act in the world to take care of our concerns and fulfill our ambitions. 

When we Read the World, we can discover new interpretations of how to think about and act with our children.  We can learn where there are attractive places to live. 

We can increase our capacity to be healthy, invest our money, vote effectively, purchase better tools and anticipate cultural drifts that will affect how we live.

Most of us cannot act in this domain by ourselves.  We need help from others.  One of the concerns of a couple or spouses with ambition is to locate themSelves in a network or community in which interpretations of the drift of the world are made regularly and powerfully.  Anticipating the drift of the world is a necessary virtue for designing powerful action for fulfilling ambitions.