There is more than just "friend", "lover", and "sex buddy"

Right now I'm browsing through a general-audience book on relationships by famed sociologist and relationship expert Pepper Schwartz. It's called Everything You Know About Love and Sex is Wrong: 25 Relationship Myths Redefined to Achieve Happiness and Fulfillment in Your Intimate Life (2000). I must say, her ideas are very intriguing and she makes a strong case against such commonly held beliefs as "your lover should be your best friend" and "pick only someone you are madly in love with". Refreshingly, though, Schwartz waffles quite a bit on her own advice. While she blows apart the above myths, she also acknowledges that for some people, certain of these relationships are just fine—if not preferable.

The more of this book I go through, the more I come to the following conclusion: There are different kinds of relationships for different kinds of people under different kinds of circumstances. Instead of adhering to the tried and true relationship templates and "rules", perhaps we ought to spend more time evaluating our own needs and wants and then choosing those relationship configurations and styles which suit us best. For some people, this might mean marriage. For others, it might mean cohabitation. For yet others it might mean a life full of special friendships and camaraderie, but no romance. The combinations are endless.

If in our culture we celebrate the uniqueness of each individual, why can we not celebrate the uniqueness of each individual's relationships?