Little things

What makes and breaks a relationship? I'm sure everyone's pondered the answer to that question at some point in their lives, regardless of the number of relationships they've been in. What brings people together and what takes them apart? Are they two different things? Are they two sides of the same thing?
Worse, are they both...the same things?

I've asked a lot of people this, people who've been successful at handling their relationship, people who haven't, people who've never been in a relationship and people who have and hence don't want to anymore. I've got a lot of responses, but none of them were answers. No, really, no one knows the answer to this one. I'm sure psychologists don't either, because then they'd all have the most successful relationships on the planet, and I know for a fact that that is not the case. If someone figured out the answer to this one, he'd have figured out what can effectively be seen as the secret to life. People all over the world would have their problem solved, a ubiquitous problem at that.

All I could get, however, were that a shocking majority of people said that it was the little things that finally did it. The little things not only brought them together, but it also took them apart. The very same things, apparently. They finally get to you. 'You assume life is all about these big things', someone once said to me. 'You hold up a trough together with all these rocks and suddenly the little rocks start falling through the holes, creating more space for the big ones to fall, and before you know it, you've got an empty trough with two angry people fighting to throw it at each other.'

The little things. The teensy, tiny little things. That get to you.

the way you dance to that beat
the way you obsess about things
the way you drink. the way you eat
the way you sing.
the way you look when you sleep
the way you lie
the way you lose things. the way you keep.
the way you cry.
the way you love pretense
the way you lack respect, too.
they way you treat others, and hence
the way others treat you.
the way you think you know it all
the way you start to joke
the way you can't handle a fall
the way you're broke.
the way you cannot do what I like anymore
even though you used to
the way you complain when you're sore
and while I'm still trying, too.
the way you play the blame-game
the way you are with my friends
the way you act tame
the way you react when you're tense
the way you are about PDA
the way you give me space
the way you talk, the way you say
the way you greet. your face.
the way you love. the way you think
the way you judge, gauge.
the way you're always on the brink
the way you change.

I wonder if it's true. What do you think?