Group Four - Pragma

'Your daddy's rich / And your mamma's good-looking.'
George Gershwin

The god of Group Four is Pragma - you value your partner mainly for pragmatic reasons: they want the same kind of house as you do, they have a good family, they have money, their car is really handy, they make your friends conveniently jealous of you, they happened to be available when you were looking for someone.  I'm sorry that pragmatism is not a way of loving but you're welcome to go back to the questions and try again.

Oh alright, here's something for you: it's the world's oldest surviving love letter in English, written in 1477 by Margery Brews to her fiancé John Paston.  She lets him know, in some desperation, that she hasn't been able to persuade her father to increase her dowry but, if he loves her, she also loves him, and if they can put petty pragmatism aside, she still hopes they will marry.  It's a humdinger of a Valentine card.  From the British Library, here's the original, here's a transcript, here's how it would have sounded read out, and (from the MyHeritage website) here's the Norfolk family who wouldn't be here if John and Margery had allowed pragmatism to foil their love.  Nuff said.


___________________
www.waysofloving.com