I agree with stacy and agree in bits and pieces with hoptis.
I
don't agree that people are too selfish to commit to another person for life, and I say this as a result of my conditioning. No one in my family has ever been divorced. My parents have been married for 32 years, grandparents for 55 years, my grandfather killed himself when he lost his wife to cancer, all of my parents' brothers and sisters remain true and loyal to their husbands and wives through death and serious illness. I really don't see a lot of selfishness in the way these people feel about each other.
Had I been brought into a broken home by a mother who'd been married 3 times, I'd probably feel differently. But in my house, we've always been taught that marriage is forever,
and that it's hard work.
I think a lot of the problem is that people are quite willing to go out and get married - whether it be because weddings are pretty and exciting, or because he accidentally knocked her up, or because they've "never felt this way about anyone" (and truly, after 2 months of a relationship that's generally how one feels, but IMHO it doesn't justify getting married) - without any notion whatsoever of just how much work is involved. We don't have to (unless we're Catholic, I guess), go to "Marriage Classes" to learn how to be a good spouse, and I think that a lot of the time people dive headfirst into a very serious legal agreement with little to no foresight and 6 months down the track are left thinking "Shit, this sucks."
And when it seems that the majority of people my age who are getting married are spoilt little rich kids, the notion of "Well, now I have to put in some effort and make it work" is a lot less appealing than "At least I know I can just get divorced", and that's so unfortunate.
I'll just briefly add in some personal experience here. I'm not married, but I'm pregnant to a guy who was raised a Catholic. Now, his parents went spare, as one would imagine. Every time his mum calls, she hassles him about getting married, and I think she's scaring him or threatening him with knives or something, because he's started to hassle me on her behalf. Having a baby is not a good reason to get married. I absolutely love this guy, and I do want to get married to him eventually, but I always promised myself I wouldn't do it for the wrong reasons, and this is a wrong reason. If we were to go and get married next month because his crazy Catholic parents wanted us to or they'd disown us, surely that wouldn't be a good basis for a marriage? And it just seems apparent to me that too many people are getting married for these stupid, stupid reasons.
What's the general consensus re: living together before marriage? I've been living with Michael since July 2002 and really, it's not easy. It's expensive and it's stressful and it's hard work, and there have been times when I've just wanted to go home to my parents and sleep in their bed. I do think it's a good indication of what life will be like when we've been married for a few years, though. It's ugly and it's messy and the TV is bad, but it's helping me to understand what adjustments we both have to make to our way of life to make our relationship work. And learning to compromise
before one gets married can only be a good thing, no?
I don't know if Michael is my soulmate. I usually think that my Dad is my soulmate (not romantically, obviously). Unfortunately, I think the notion of "soulmate" is far too broad to be applicable to everyone - what if your soulmate is your grandmother? Do you wait until your next life in the hope that you'll be able to be with her forever then? If your soulmate happens to be the same sex as you and you're straight, do you compromise your heterosexuality?
I love, respect and try to understand Michael more than anything, and can't imagine feeling that way about anyone else, but does that make him my soulmate? There's bound to be someone else out there who I'd click with just as well - are they my soulmate? Is it even worth worrying about whether anyone is my soulmate if it means I'm missing out on feeling happy about my love life (whatever that may be) at the time? Who
cares if my soulmate is out there?
In my opinion, a good relationship should be feeling good about what one has and working really hard to keep it that way.
I ramble!
