Effort vs. Love

Yesterday, I had a chat with an old friend and the topic of love came up. I argued that love shouldn't be evaluated based on the amount of effort put in. 

Some may disagree, and they may further think I don't put much effort into my relationship with my wife. But I don't pay much attention to most other people's opinions anyway. 

If anything, love should be evaluated based on growth, not effort. I previously had this conversation with another friend and said that as long as I am a better person because of my wife, our relationship is working.

My friend and I agreed that unfortunately, many relationships are evaluated based on effort. The upfront question "what has he/she done for me?" is a major obstacle to what we consider true love. Jokingly, we ranked Chinese guys as the ones who make the most effort, followed by Singaporean guys, and then Malaysian guys. While everything is relative, Malaysian guys still maintain a high standard. Anyway, it was just a joke.