About marriage

I overheard two of my colleagues speaking today. One was saying that the reason he and his girlfriend don't want to get married is because when you're married, you are forced to be together. If you are not married, however, you are freely choosing to be with that person every day of your life. He said he wakes up every day and chooses to be with his partner because he loves her.

I do understand what he's saying, but you could say the same about marriage. Regardless of the religious reasons that are attached to the institution of marriage, is marriage not the ultimate sign of love and commitment? When you say "I do" (actually I just said "YES" and never "I do"), you are saying "I want to wake up next to you for the rest of my life. I choose you as my life partner." Marriage is not for sissies. This is the real deal. You have to love, and be very serious and committed to your partner. When you're just "together" it's easier to get out of the relationship - there's always that back door that you leave open... Just in case.

But even marriage has lost its importance. I see on Ricki Lake (I try not to watch this regularly, but what else is on between 1 and 2! It's either Ricki or Days...) - every other day the theme of the programme is cheating. Girlfriends cheating on boyfriends, husbands cheating on wives... Today for the first time in a long time I could really see that the wife who was being cheated on was genuinely hurt by this. Usually all parties seem rather unperturbed.

For my husband and I, marriage is Holy and wonderful and the ultimate sign of love and commitment. Not everyone seems to share our opinion though...