Remember the first car that you bought for, perhaps, $500? The car transported you from place to place, and that was more than enough to make you value the car highly. You likely told friends that it was worth much more than $500 to you. Currency is a measure of value of something to us, irrespective of the the labor, time, energy, or love we put into that which we value.

In the past couple of weeks I’ve had one friend get surprised by a layoff from work, a second one surprised by a sudden demand by his girlfriend that they move in together, and a third friend get surprised by his wife’s own sudden feelings - realizing after seven years of marriage that she wants a divorce.  These are the surprises of life, and what matters is what we do next. We can’t control the world, the random conditions of the environment, or human mistakes, but we can jump on them and correct our direction.

What can we learn from celebrity relationships, specifically Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore?  I think we can learn a thing or two from married movie stars, especially when they break up. Their profession requires them to display their personalities to the public, and we get to watch a relationship unfold in all of its glorious, flawed humanity.  Some Hollywood actors try very hard to keep their relationships private, but not Demi and Ashton.