This piece has its origins in a conversation with a friend about his relationship/s.
I think, one, sex is overrated; two, sex complicates everything. He (the friend) said that the latter was from the movie, The Holiday. (whatever!) Anyways, like i was saying, sex complicates everything. Which means, the whole idea of fidelity is actually a completely screwed up construction of/in society. The point is, there can be nothing like fidelity if you were to follow whatever it stands for very strictly. fidelity creeps into any relationship only when one talks of it vis-a-vis any sexual relationship. i dont think people usually understand the notion of emotional fidelity. for instance, during the period of the renaissance, i.e. 15-16th century in italy, people did understand the notion of emotional infidelity, which is why they could "approve" of it. that is, for any one partner in a relationship to be emotionally involved with anyone else was alright. in other words, platonic love was allowed. platonic love - the love that binds you to a person emotionally but not physically/sexually. that means you can love someone but not kiss/sleep with him/her.
The point i am making is, if fidelity in our times stands for only sexual fidelity, i dont think i really approve of the whole idea. it sounds corny. you can love someone else emotionally but still be sleeping with the one you are supposedly in a relationship with. how does being sexually faithful to one mean anything at all if your emotions are not faithful to him/her. so the question is, why does society propagate the idea of fidelity only sexually. why do emotions not matter? i guess coz you cant be taken to court for your emotions. nobody can prove your emotions to be unfaithful (though i prefer the word faithless to unfaithful). so at the end of the day, it is only a validation of the legal system, and by extending the validation, of rational philosophy. i am beginning to believe Plato was more sensitive and perceptive about emotions than most of our philosophers!
To put it in a nutshell, sexual fidelity is zero without emotional fidelity. and emotional fidelity is much more precious to me than the sexual one.
