Recession

Never just give anything away in a relationship. With the growth of any relationship, but particularly as concerns the more intimate variety, there is inevitably an economy of trust and control, the former being traded for the latter back and forth across various contexts. Indeed this is what it means for a relationship to grow: for our expectations of, and allowances for, one another to grow into a stable system of mutual influence. This is the potentially frightening aspect of a growing relationship, for as it grows all reservations must eventually be lost when that special someone whispers in your ear. Such reservations need not be cast off begrudgingly, however, nor without gain; concessions to intimacy and control are valuable, after all, and may be traded like any commodity. Indeed, the skill at making such trades responsibly determines much of what there will be of mutual respect within the relationship.