In all of my life I have never known a couple, gay or straight, in which one person of the two doesn't have more power or control.
Not all relationships are about power and control, tho -- I think it's more accurate to expand that to "where one person has more power or control, or one person gives more and the other takes more." I offer this respectfully, and I offer it because I think we move farther away from peace and understanding when we see power and control as the bottom line.
. . . . . . I absolutely agree that there's always an imbalance in relationships, even in friendships, but perfect balance is impossible; I think the goal is to grow as humans -- to work on being aware of, and adjusting, the imbalance.
He had found his sobriety and he was a people pleaser.
I don't think that he *was* a people-pleaser. From what I know of 12-step programs, people who have successfully completed the steps give up such behaviors. In addition, there's an ep in S5 or S6 in which he says how glad he is to have become a person that other people can rely on; people-pleasing relies on so much manipulation that it often is incompatible with being responsible and dependable. Plus, he didn't shy away from pointing out Brenda's cr-p in an authentic and forthright way, and people-pleasers can't do that. He didn't do it often, but he did it.
. . . . . . . Someone in another thread suggested that Fritz, having faced his own big flaws, was tolerant of Brenda's; that, plus his need to be reliable and strong -- he's a law-enf agent; he's someone whom she and her family can depend on -- goes a long way toward explaining their relationship.
"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."
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