Running in Riverside Park

I went for a lovely run this morning in Riverside Park. I put the Nike+ Ipod on a 5K routine, and let it guide my distance and time. Today I chose to run along the Hudson River. It was already hot at 9am so I am glad I am not out there now! (I'm not necessarily "glad" I'm sitting at work instead, but that's beside the point.) I didn't have a camera with me, but here's a pretty good look at my view during run. This picture is missing one thing that is very cool: boats galore. There are dozens of sail boats that dot the water in between Manhattan and Jersey, making for a jaw dropping view.



While I was running, I was thinking about relationships between people. Can we really hold someone to a standard they have never acheived within the relationship? I understand that people have standards, and we hold the people with whom with have relationships to those standards. But when you expect someone to behave in a certain way or acheive a specific expectation, is it fair to ask them of it when they've never done it before? For instance, your partner never takes out the trash... well, did they EVER take out the trash? Can you reasonably expect them to begin doing this task when you never asked for it to be done before? Now, that does seem like a "light" example. Perhaps the tougher questions would revolve around income, emotional expression, the ability to give, etc. But tying it all together - when is not ok to ask someone to acheive your new standard for them when they never had it before...