The strongest relationships are the ones that share a common object that is bigger and more significant than the individuals in the relationship, even bigger than the relationship itself. Relationships that fixate on the process and experience of being in relationship for the sake of the relationship are doomed. Relationships that are their own ends, instead of means to greater ends, get trapped inside themselves.
G.K. Chesterton said that “Vigorous organisms think not about their processes but their aims.”
Relationships need aims.