Love-Hate

I once thought Love-Hate Relationships referred to the phenomenon of me loving people who hated me. But that was just Unrequited Love. Requited Love would be better. A common fourth quadrant is Hate-Hate Relationships which are under analyzed. We are more fascinated with couples like Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor who marry, divorce, remarry, and divorce again. Or maybe that is my own bias. I even have a Love-Hate Relationship with insects. I have a theoretical love of bees, wasps, and ants for all the they do to benefit my environment. I love honey. But I hate getting stung when I step barefoot on a bee in the clover. I hate being harassed by wasps when eating on my deck. And I hate finding that I am sharing a peanut and butter sandwich with ants. I love and hate my automobile and my printer. I love having a roof and indoor plumbing but I hate how they leak. I love that mechanisms exist to register our like or dislike of services and products and I have utilized them when I am overly impressed or distressed. But I hate the bullying to participate as if I am rude to choose other ways to use my time. The volume of requests and surveys is so overwhelming, you could spend hours a day reviewing if that was a fun hobby for you. Consider the choice to pass as a review itself. Last week I was pumping gas at the Shell station by my house and the screen was flashing with a message to “Like us on Facebook.” What possible value would that action have for me, Shell, or their potential customers? I already proved I like them enough not to be gassing up with the competitor across the street.

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