This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/31/relationship-threat-time-energy
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| As Macron knows, the real threat to relationships today is time and energy | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Emmanuel Macron has taken four days off: “exhausted” is his given reason. Naturally, his nation scrambles for a better excuse. Exhaustion was spoiled as a get-out years ago, when rock stars started using it to mean “off my tits”. | Emmanuel Macron has taken four days off: “exhausted” is his given reason. Naturally, his nation scrambles for a better excuse. Exhaustion was spoiled as a get-out years ago, when rock stars started using it to mean “off my tits”. |
| The real reason, according to French gossip, is a rift with his wife Brigitte, who was overheard reprimanding him by palace staff. “No more fuck-ups,” was her alleged command, after he posed for unpresidential photos with half-naked rappers. Rumours became so febrile that his press people posted a picture of the pair together, hashtagged “love”, and the world breathed a sigh of relief, because that is definitely what people do when they are truly in love. They depart for an undisclosed location on All Saints’ Day weekend, to shore up their #love, presumably with #lazysundays and #shagging. | The real reason, according to French gossip, is a rift with his wife Brigitte, who was overheard reprimanding him by palace staff. “No more fuck-ups,” was her alleged command, after he posed for unpresidential photos with half-naked rappers. Rumours became so febrile that his press people posted a picture of the pair together, hashtagged “love”, and the world breathed a sigh of relief, because that is definitely what people do when they are truly in love. They depart for an undisclosed location on All Saints’ Day weekend, to shore up their #love, presumably with #lazysundays and #shagging. |
| Minibreaks as an answer to serious marital discord are like 1950s exposure therapy. You identify the thing you have an aversion to and flood your senses with it. Nobody really thinks it works anymore, though it is still current in mindfulness circles. Two days in a hotel can reignite passion in a stagnant yet basically amicable marriage, but not if you are a world leader: I know this from the Danish TV series, Borgen. Confusingly here the centrist is called Birgitte and the spouse isn’t called Emanuel, but try to keep up. Birgitte carves out four hours from urgent coalition-building to put on suspenders for her husband, but he’s not into it because he doesn’t like to be scheduled in that “hup!” style, and there begins an unravelling that I think ends in their divorce but I can’t remember because something happened in the middle with the Green party. | |
| You would think it would be really easy to govern a country and have a high-functioning relationship, since all of those problems that regularly capsize a marriage – infidelity, addiction, debt, yoga – you wouldn’t have time for anyway, unless you were a leader from the 1970s. Yet, in fact, the two major sources of schism are not sex and money but time and energy. It is annoying enough when one person has a running club on a Tuesday night. If they are measuring out their day in segments of 15 minutes, and history is on their side, putting high demand upon their attention, it would be unbearable. How are you supposed to nag a person who can legitimately delegate everything except GDP and carbon emissions? Every packed schedule has a kernel of self-righteousness, unless it’s your own, in which case, of course you’re indispensable, and maybe your spouse could work on a little indispensability themselves. What you ideally want from a marriage is acres of untenanted time, which you can then spend arguing about why they need a snooze in the afternoon. But a partner who needs very little sleep – Macron famously sends emails at 3am and is up again at 6am – is another kind of monster, a super breed, two hearts in one body, like living with Doctor Who. | |
| The only way to restore the delicate power equilibrium is to go full slacker: G&T at 11 in the morning (Denis Thatcher); embrace the dark side, and use your spouse’s powers of state for evil, or for shoes (Imelda Marcos); have designs on power yourself (Hillary Clinton); or use the position for an elaborate mime of hatred and scorn, a performance art statement on the harsh truths of intimacy and power (Melania Trump). Brigitte Macron, from what little one can observe of her, is too cerebral, too grounded, for any of those paths. She will have to stick to swearing about half-naked rappers, and wait for it to be over. | The only way to restore the delicate power equilibrium is to go full slacker: G&T at 11 in the morning (Denis Thatcher); embrace the dark side, and use your spouse’s powers of state for evil, or for shoes (Imelda Marcos); have designs on power yourself (Hillary Clinton); or use the position for an elaborate mime of hatred and scorn, a performance art statement on the harsh truths of intimacy and power (Melania Trump). Brigitte Macron, from what little one can observe of her, is too cerebral, too grounded, for any of those paths. She will have to stick to swearing about half-naked rappers, and wait for it to be over. |
| Relationships | Relationships |
| Opinion | |
| Brigitte Macron | |
| comment | comment |
| Share on Facebook | Share on Facebook |
| Share on Twitter | Share on Twitter |
| Share via Email | Share via Email |
| Share on LinkedIn | Share on LinkedIn |
| Share on Pinterest | Share on Pinterest |
| Share on Google+ | Share on Google+ |
| Share on WhatsApp | Share on WhatsApp |
| Share on Messenger | Share on Messenger |
| Reuse this content | Reuse this content |