‘Don’t, out of vanity or sycophancy, insist on having your own way, quarrelling with and tormenting yourselves and your neighbor, just so that, afterwards, you can hear people saying that nobody can beat you’ (Abba Dorotheos) There are two ways of carrying out a task: with diligence which borders on perfectionism or with casualness, the ‘whatever’ approach. This is also true in human relationships. There are those who strive hard as regards love: they pore over the details, they want to please others in all things; they put their best foot forward, precisely because they assign the greatest importance to love. And there are also those who don’t take relationships seriously. They just want to get by and their only concern ...
