Runaway Future

I went to a funeral today. That in itself probably doesn’t sound like great news. But I left with one particular thing stuck in my mind. The gentleman we were there to remember and his wife had been married an incredible 58 years before he passed away. A lot of the service was dedicating to talking about that love story and ongoing affection between the two. That’s what love is. Their Valentine’s Day would have been spent in the hospital and according to the reverend, Ted would have known he was on the way out by that time.

But how does love form?

Science might be starting to find an answer. According to this study, intimacy forms when you disclose yourself, take down the barriers and speak about yourself and who you are. Here’s an easier to understand link from Slate.com, where I first read about the study.

Basically they had test couples (randomly paired up) split into two groups: one group that shared small talk, nothing too revealing or important and the other group who answered probing personal questions about themselves. Using whatever metrics they were using, the second group felt closer at the end of the experiment then the former. One pairing even ended up in a wedding!

On the other side of the coin, my horoscope in the Herald today started with the words: “Small talk counts.”