The Need to Understand Patterns of Life

Dynamism lies at the heart of life, and nowhere is this more evident than in human relationships — especially those formed through marriage and family.

- Vijay GarG, Retired Principal

The institution of a lifelong man-woman bond remains one of the most complex experiences

Dynamism is the essence of life. Anything which exists will have some movement, some growth, and some energy to it. It will be born at a point of time, grow, develop, and gradually wither away.

This is the essential cycle of life. It is available in plants, animals, and human beings. This is a domain worthy of its own exploration, fit enough for a specialisation with many permutations and combinations. Amongst the more obvious cycles of life is the birth, growth, flowering into its fullness of creatures, and ultimately their detachment or demise. All living creatures go through this cycle.

The depth of this exploration is deep and intense. This would need many efforts over many centuries to get to any conclusion worthy of even being tossed around. To make the topic manageable in the time and space of this text, it may be desirable to talk about the area of 'relationships' only.

By definition, the 'relationship' can only exist between entities. It can be between two people of any breed and variety. The period of time spent between the two can be cyclical and capable of many undulations. Some reading of patterns can be interesting. One of the areas of relationship that is fairly universal in character is the relationship of 'marriage'/'family'.

Herein, a man and a woman come together with an implicit contract to spend time with each other in a bond. Generally, marriage involves a one-to-one commitment between a man and a woman, usually including the procreation age.