Lee Thayer Livres

Exploring the intricate web of human connections, this book delves into the various types of relationships we form—not just with people but also with possessions, pets, and everyday objects. It emphasizes the essential role these relationships play in shaping our identities and experiences. By examining how these ties influence our attention and behavior, the author presents a comprehensive view of what unites all relationships under the singular concept of "relationship," revealing their profound impact on our lives.

This is a book about how and why people “do life” as they do. It is as well a book about how people could or should think about doing life for the benefit of their own well-being and that of the people they associate with. It is a book about how our feelings and our thinking interfere with how we could be doing the life we dream of. It is a book about the mistakes we make in doing life, and how we could avoid those mistakes. It is a book about what causes us to be the way we are. It is a book about why we often can’t do life as we wish. It is about the personal dragons that stand in our way. And it is about how the real world outside of us can frequently frustrate even our best intentions. It is about ramping up for doing life, and then trying to understand why our lives so often turn out in ways we had neither anticipated nor desired. It is about how getting involved with others means our lives are forever altered. It is about why that could be a good thing or a bad thing, and how to best figure that out in advance. It is a book about frustration and regret, about pleasure and pain. It is about participating in life’s trials and tribulations by choice. It is the kind of book you can use to maximize your choices about doing life as you would have it done, and about mastering the influences of what happens in the world around you. It is about undoing the life you have in order to be able to do life the way it should be done.

This book is about the apparent incompatibility of romantic love and conventional marriage. They go together (the popular song has it) like a horse and carriage. But if the horse is ailing or otherwise not up to the task, the carriage will slowly rot away in the carriage house. It is also about the perverse fact that people bring to such relationships their expectations from the past - as they remember them. Typically, they had hopes and dreams for their future together. When these are dashed, it occurs to them that they were better off before they got hitched. It is also about the fact that when love befalls us, we lose our bearings. "Love is blind" and all that. We drift into the conventional fairy tale about living "happily ever after" That's to be desired. But the fairy tale ends with that line. It never tells us what we need to do - or be - in order to live happily ever after. Under the spell of the fairy tale, which is basic fare in various forms in our culture, we set off happily enough. But how is it possible to maintain the delusion of the love state in the banality of the everyday life that inevitably ensues? Who told us that making a living or keeping a house in order is a far different world than a wedding? Who told us that babies rule the house, unless they are tended by someone else? Copulate we apparently must. But that has consequences that are not a part of the fairy tale. So people end up on the other side of the mirror. The world is not about lovers, the realization creeps upon us. It is about 40,000 other things. And those have to be dealt with . . . most often before anything else. Thus the title, And They Lived Happily Ever . . . Before. Imagination and reality are often two very different things. This book answers the question, "What Does Love Have to Do with It" The answers may surprise you. But they will make love affairs that end in marriage far better than you might even imagine they co

Explaining Ourselves and Our Worlds Lee Thayer