“Perhaps it’s not surprising that many of us would cling to marriage at this time in our history. After all, there is a loneliness to American life today. We often live thousands of miles away from our families, in cities where most public spaces are indistinct, impeccably designed by corporate creatives telegraphing class — the towering pillars of the Banana Republic at the outdoor mall, the endless escalators and tiled walls of the multiplex. Jobs come and go, people move away at the drop of a hat, relationships begin and end and begin again. It’s understandable that so many of us long for some feeling of permanent connection, some certainty of a relationship that could withstand the constant flux we experience, year after year.
But that fixation on one lasting connection may actually contribute to our inability to keep our marriages intact. If, in the back of our minds, we’re fixated on marriage as the answer to all our woes, then we won’t manage to invest enough in the jobs, people and places that do come into our lives, and they’ll ultimately pass us by like billboards on the freeway. Building steady, permanent relationships with a wide range of people and fostering a sense of community that transcends romantic relationships may contribute more to our health and happiness than we can imagine.”
- Heather Havrilesky
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2002/06/24/marriage_revivalists/index.html
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