Taking care of yourselves, and each other.

Mandela and Winnie on the day of his release

They say behind every great man is a great woman. The understanding is that the woman functions in much the same way a good trainer does in the life of an athlete or athletes in making their partner shine.

I think, in fact I am convinced, that this also applies vice versa. The two of the people in the relationship have a training effect on each other. They make each other better.

They are both great when they go out there, because they have such great sparring partners.

Jonh F. Kennedy with his wife Jacqueline

Greatness can, as such, be considered contagious.

But is the reverse also the case? I mean is being a loser contagious when disguised as greatness?

Yes it is ...

We all know having a good sparring partner is good training for an athlete. Fighting worthy opponents is necessary to maintenance of good reflexes and form overall. Having a string of overkill benefits one less than involvement in duels that are more or less evenly matched. The athlete gains rather than loses. The other truth to this is the fact the better athlete makes the lesser opponent better.

If, for instance, the great man's woman went out and sparred with a loser, or a number of these ... (all disguised/promoted as (a) great(s) to make sparring with them look like a good idea), this partner becomes useless as a sparring partner for their other genuine great partner who will also subsequently lose their status as great out in public if they persist in using this one person as their main sparring partner.

Plus, they would have caught the bug by indirect exposure, if such exposure is prolonged enough.

Dependent on how the fraudulent great who caused the regression in the one person achieves the feat of deceiving people they are sparring with a worthy opponent, the exposed partner will be infected with the very same virus, meaning they would have taken up in full the strategies and tactics the loser applies to achieve the great effect.

The other great will not get the full monty and will only eventually realize they have lost a worthy sparring partner, mainly through external exposure. The training they are supposed to be getting from the one they consider a good trainer will not be getting them the results they are used to get when in a duel with the public out there.

Malcolm X with his wife

Understanding that their under-performance is being caused by their partner will be easy but not strait-forward. They might blunder into illogical thinking such as that the world around them is on to their game or that other people are simply getting better than them, etc.

Eventually, however, the partner will catch their usual sparring partner (or significant other) making unusual mistakes ... This is easy when you have sparred for lengthy periods of time with another. All it takes is a guard raised later than would usually be the case, and such, resulting in an unusual knock down.

Curing the infection is easy, and the cures are manifold.

An increase of the time spent in the company of the genuinely great sparring partner and a reduction of time spent sparring with the loser is one.

Note here that intervention has to be timely for the old order of things to be restored, because there are factors that might intervene to make it too late, for example nature "and" lure or temptation/infatuation (intellectual or otherwise). or maybe the one partner thinks they are better off keeping with the loser ... or the other, less affected thus still conscious person seeks better pastures elsewhere.

Martin Luther King Jr with his wife Coretta

Whatever the outcome, states can persist without this meaning they necessarily become permanent. Issue only is time. One has to move fast in life to be able to catch that bus/flight and being forced into changes that impact on timeliness is not a good idea for most ... which is why the sensible stick to one partner, reduce the sparring they do with others (use condoms), or abstain completely ...

As Jerry Springer would say in conclusion to his "Jerry Springer" show, take care of yourselves, and each other ...