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Attachment, or “gettin’ hitched”

Sixth in a series

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In our last exciting episode, we saw that for science, love is a process of “lust, attraction, attachment.” We dispensed with “lust” as a misnomer for sexual desire, which is not immoral. Attraction refers to all the ways two people seem to discover to share with each other.

Getting to attachment is what courtship is about.

What a nice old-fashioned word, “courtship”. To be courting someone is the process of determining whether all things considered someone can be trusted to be your spouse. First, since we live with the romantic-love model, you probably will not go to a matchmaker, or even less, consent to have parents pick the right mate. You may well dig out your phone to try a dating app. (I met my wife using one.) Indeed, during the COVID-19 pandemic, use of dating apps exploded, as one might expect. It is difficult to “meet up for a drink” if the bars are closed. Same with “getting together for coffee…”

Love online…

A dating app is a matchmaker, in fact. It differs from a living matchmaker in that the app uses algorithms to match profiles. A human one uses all the possibilities being a social animal offers, and algorithms don’t do intuition. Nor do they offer personal advice and coaching (at least not yet). The app requires you to make a…

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Pierre Whalon
Pierre Whalon

Written by Pierre Whalon

Episcopal Bishop, musician, composer, author, happily married. www.pierrewhalon.info. Read my books on Amazon! Now on Blusky: bppwhalon973.bsky.social

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