Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player."-Albert Einstein Let us meet that unseen player within these pages, understand her agenda, and become aware of how the symphony of motivations she orchestrates forces us to act. She is the Medulla Obligation, and woven into her "song" are the successful survival behaviors of our ancestors. The Medulla Obligation dictates our goals, pursuits, and behaviors just as decisively as the medulla oblongata at the base of our brains controls heartbeat and breathing. Most of our lives, her enchanting melody seems safely in the distance. But at important times, her pressures suddenly explode from within us, compelling us to do what her song promises will make love come true. We are certain we are flying. But soon our dreams are left withering in the wake that follows her desertion of the relationships she sealed. We can fix this. Never before has a writer-and a male, no less-taken the overly saturated literary topic of relationships and shown us a new and intimate psychological blueprint to guide us on our way as Kelson does in The Medulla Obligation.