Pygmalion

      The story of Pygmalion was very interesting to me. I feel like it can relate to many peoples lives . Alot of times, when people are in a relationship, they try to change the other person somehow. In the story, Pygmalion constructed his idea of the perfect women into a statue and fell in love with her. He had all the control in creating her. Many times in relationships it seems like one person thinks that they can change the other somehow. So, they spend time trying to change them and are often times disappointed that they can't. As humans, we are not pygmalion and cannot completely change another person.

   I found a quote from the book "No Man Is a Island" that says "The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them."To me, this quote is relevant to the idea of people trying to mold others to fit their own image of the perfect person. Its true that often times in love people change and they change each other just by being together, but i'm not so sure if the complete essence of a person can change in a relationship. For example, my sister and her boyfriend have an agreement. They each have an issue that the other is not so fond of. My sister is a vegetarian and her boyfriend smokes. So, they have the agreement that is he stops smoking, then she will start eating meat. This doesn't seem like a drastic change in what defines them, but rather just a little something that might help their lives in someway.

     I've often heard that people put the ones that they love on a pedestal and sometimes refuse to see their flaws. If you're in a bad relationship, somethings you might be the only one who doesn't see it. You may be so in love that it blurs your vision and it takes all the people around you telling you how bad it is for you to finally realize it. Love is tricky.

    I find the quote that I said earlier to even be relevant in my life. When people start dating, its usually a happy beginning and you only see the good things about the other person. However, as time goes on, you start to see the negatives. If you try to change all the negatives to fit your idea of the perfect person, the other person may begin to resent you and then they are not themselves anymore- they are just the person that you created. Sometimes this can be good, like if they have a bad addiction or something, but other times its best to let the person be themselves and love them for them.

    Anyways, I feel like the story of pygmalion, even as old as it is, can still be extremely relevant to everyones lives today.