Positivity Ratio

You've probably heard the concept that a healthy relationship has more positive interactions than negative ones. There are all kinds of proposed ratios based on all kinds of research, but the one that comes out near the top of the Google search is 3 to 1. There's another, longer-term way of expressing the idea that I heard once from Garrison Keillor on his radio show. A relationship is like a bank account. Positive experiences are deposits, negative experiences are withdrawals. You always want to keep a healthy balance in the account. About the only modification I would make (and Keillor was not having a deep philosophical discussion, of course) is that this account has negative interest. That is, the older an experience, the less value it has. Fortunately, I have a positive balance with all the people I love, and I intend to keep it that way