Marriage is a life long commitment. At least the way I was taught it was.
Now my ex at one point said very much what you said chief. "So since I promised forever, I have to put up with whatever and have no recourse? Don't I deserve to be happy?"
Bull pucky.
Happiness comes and goes. Feelings come and go. Emotions come and go. We all experience the ebbs and flows of life on a regular basis.
And YES, we quite frequently do NOT do this marriage thing right. But you know what? Not to sound old or anything, but in the past the COMMITMENT was what you held on to during the dry times and the rough patches. We didn't always have a 50% divorce rate in this country at least.
Now we quit. Now we move on. More than that, we are an impatient people, more and more so every passing year. We long for immediate gratification and have little tolerance for delayed reward.
The end result is no fault divorce and the ability to exit a marriage just because you want to.
Well my response is that if you want to exit the marriage (excluding abusive relationships of course), you should not have entered into a marriage in the first place.
For better or worse...
For richer or poorer...
In sickness and in health...
Till death do us part...
I still believe those words are not just symbolic or wishful thinking. I believe they are a vow, my WORD of commitment to a lifelong relationship. They are my promise to weather whatever storms come my way in the relationship and to dedicate myself to finding a way through to the other side in each and every one.
I'm not ready to allow the sad statistics to convince me that marriage is dead. I just think there are a lot of people who are too selfish or immature to be seriously considering such a promise.
Bill
"Don't tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon."
