To study a country's present, you must study a country's past to understand the country's current juncture. In doing this, you will come to understand aspects of culture which are seemingly innocuous.  For instance, most country's brew their own beer and have their own blood banks and expectations with respect to general education.  These expectations may vary within the country itself but there has to be a general minimum to allow someone to walk into society as a person able to know when he is being wrongfully treated by a soccer referee or a maytag repair man.  In domestic situations, it might be possible to say that the average family in Provence will never know the shadow of any form of domestic violence and this may also be true of a family that finds its origins in Switzerland ( where they make pretty chocolate); just over the border from France or Italy.  In certain other cultures,  the story is more diverse and a young expatriate from Croatia or Holland might find his experience with his wife from another culture quite the same or possibly  more demanding of his passionate love for sports, good perpetual motion machines and his formative experiences; maybe not.

It is rumoured that a long time ago, a young man on the north side of the Swiss border met an Iberian young lady while getting lost hiking in the Spring.  A storm came the next day and he had to spend four nights with her family.  By chance, they copulated on the fourth night and the snow cleared in time for the seventh day.  They had known each other and he promised to return. He left a compass that had a watch built into it. No batteries were required miraculously as it was a new invention. During the time he shared with his wife's family( see Matthew 19), he noted public affection but also heated discussions over a half spoon of butter in the pasta preparations. The husband insisted on a half spoon while the wife wanted a full spoon. She would touch him a lot and it seemed as if she would ask him to be aggressive as if she needed to know something.  He would then oblige and it was confusing to this visitor.  The only comparison in his family is the time his father spent reading to his mother (his  father's wife).  He would read something like a blue print for a boat or a bible quote and they would discuss it heatedly and passionately.  His father was raised by Franciscan monks as a boy in Italy.  His mother respected this and if his father did not do this, he would see the emotions displayed by his(now) mother in-law. 

The young man reflected on this slight comparison in domestic behaviour as it disclosed one thing. The wife seemed to want some form of communication and the explanation for this is the comments made by Sara with respect to Abraham in the bible.  She called him her Lord. But, it could not have been the heat in the Iberian country that resulted in the difference. It seemed to be an issue of trust that begins quite early on in life and knowing that your Lord, father or husband  is not anyone who will impose a decision  that you should be allowed to make at some time. But, it seemed as if  moments spent reading were not enough for his new Iberian mother. She wanted something more tactile and was surprised that her daughter said he will not as did her older sister's husband from down the road. He slapped her knees with a cinnamon covered chocolate.  He said it was a "macaroon"(-google it) if you wanted it to be and it was best to be delicate with it as it was designed that way.   Her older sister had another suitor who lived five minutes in the other direction and he would not.  The sister's husband understood while this new son did not.   He decided to follow what he understood because in his culture, your mother would not give you any more pretty chocolate if she knew you weren't treating someone as you would wish to be treated.  That was punishment enough.   The young man's grandson grew up to be a designer for Longines apparently. He made watches that were passionate, efficient yet humbly traditional.