If you keep abreast of social media, you might have seen "the
tragedy of the commons" mentioned in the past week. It came up because of a professor at the University
of Maryland who added this question to his psych students' final exam:
You have the opportunity to earn some extra credit on your
final paper grade. Select if you want 2 points or 6 points added to your final
paper grade. But there's a small catch:
If more than 10% of the class selects 6 points, then no one gets any
points. Your responses will be anonymous to the class.
a) 2 points
b) 6 points
The question went viral. It isn't new, though; it was first
written up in a journal over 25 years ago and is meant to highlight
what is known as the "tragedy of the commons." What's is that?
A common was a shared grazing area in English villages where
herders grazed their cows. Occasionally,
some of them would let their sheep graze there, too. Sheep eat more grass than
cows. So while it benefited a herder to
let his sheep graze in the common, if many herders did it, the sheep would
eventually overgraze and destroy it. A tragedy.
But don't we - and our romance heroes and heroines - face
choices like these, too?
It seems to me that relationships of any kind, and
particularly intimate relationships, are rife with choices in which we have to
decide whether or not to act selfishly at the expense of what is good for the
relationship. True, a relationship isn't a public resource, but it is something
shared by a least two people. This forces
us to face dilemmas like these:
Do I go to sleep for the night, or have a cup of coffee so I
can stay awake to greet my beloved when he comes home late from work?
Do I avoid my mother-in-law's birthday bash because I'd
rather go shopping with my sister, or do I bite the bullet and sacrifice what I
want to do for peace and harmony at home?
(Mind you, that is a totally hypothetical example - I happen
to be blessed with the world's most amazing mother-in-law!)
These are all very individual, private decisions. But time and again we're faced with the
choice to act selfishly, or in support of our relationships.
Sometimes, they are not easy decisions, like in some romance
novels where the needs or wants of our heroines clash with those of our
heroes. Which is what makes those
stories so much fun to read, isn't it?
Facing those types of problem doesn't always come in the
middle of a story. In The Holiday,
one of my favorite romantic movies, the film ends with all four protagonists,
two couples each involved in transatlantic romances, embarking on shared lives
that will require negotiating many such decisions if they are to succeed.
Resolving me-versus-us issues in ways in which both partners
win gives readers hope that potential tragedy can be turned into victory.
As for that psych exam?
No one got extra points. The prof has been asking the question for eight
years, and he's only ever had one class win the extra points!
What are some of your favorite novels in which hero and
heroine must make some personal sacrifice and choose the common good in order
for their relationship to survive?
Milou
Koenings writes romance because, like chocolate, stories with a happy ending
bring more joy into the world and so make it a better place.
Her sweet romance, Reclaiming Home, A Green
Pines Romance, is available at Amazon.
You can find her on her website, www.miloukoenings.com, on Facebook, or Twitter.
You can find her on her website, www.miloukoenings.com, on Facebook, or Twitter.
Sign up
for our newsletter and keep up with Sweet Romance Reads! Scroll down
the right side of our blog and enter your email address under Newsletter
Signup.
Join us at the Sweet Romance Reads Cafe to chat with our authors. We love to hear from you!
Join us at the Sweet Romance Reads Cafe to chat with our authors. We love to hear from you!
