Apologies for being late to thread. Additional apologies for not bothering to read through the multiple pages of bickering that seem to have ensued.
Although I've been an atheist all my life, I didn't know to put that label on it until just a few years ago. That being said, I've always been a non-religion/non-tradition type person. And all through my early adulthood I never really cared much about marriage. I had my fair share of friends that got married and I gave them all my heartfelt support. I just never really considered it as much of a goal/option for myself.
Then I met Sue. And the moment I met Sue I knew she was like no other person I'd ever met. I knew her and I were formed and matched for each other like no other matches I'd ever seen. In short, I knew immediately this one was different, this one was going to be good, this one was going to change everything for me.
And while Sue will tell you she felt all the same things, she'll also tell you that she was take or leave it on the subject of marriage. She'd found the guy she knew she'd probably spend the rest of her life with and that was good enough for her. To hell with labels. To hell with what other people thought.
But I was not lucky enough to share the same forward thinking. Although i'd never seriously considered marriage to be a goal, the moment I met Sue marriage became a major priority for me.
True, we could have gone on being just an unmarried couple, i.e. boyfriend and girlfriend and that would have been just fine, but here's the problem I had with that. By the time I'd met Sue, I'd had lots of girlfriends in my day. And while I'd genuinely cared for each one in her own particular time, the moment I met Sue I knew she was different. And suddenly having to label her the exact same way I'd labeled everyone who came before her, i.e. as my girlfriend, was now somehow insulting. And I could not wait to fix that. Girlfriends are great, but they're inherently temporary. Sue was no girlfriend and it was important to me that everyone understood that.
So we got married. It had nothing to do with god. It had nothing to do with the tax advantage (though they don't exactly suck). It had everything to do with it being imperative to me that Sue was not lumped into the conga line of imperfect girlfriends which preceded her. It was important to me to have a label which told the world immediately in no uncertain terms, this one is different, this one is the one.
God can go fuck himself. I got married because she was the one that mattered.
Although I've been an atheist all my life, I didn't know to put that label on it until just a few years ago. That being said, I've always been a non-religion/non-tradition type person. And all through my early adulthood I never really cared much about marriage. I had my fair share of friends that got married and I gave them all my heartfelt support. I just never really considered it as much of a goal/option for myself.
Then I met Sue. And the moment I met Sue I knew she was like no other person I'd ever met. I knew her and I were formed and matched for each other like no other matches I'd ever seen. In short, I knew immediately this one was different, this one was going to be good, this one was going to change everything for me.
And while Sue will tell you she felt all the same things, she'll also tell you that she was take or leave it on the subject of marriage. She'd found the guy she knew she'd probably spend the rest of her life with and that was good enough for her. To hell with labels. To hell with what other people thought.
But I was not lucky enough to share the same forward thinking. Although i'd never seriously considered marriage to be a goal, the moment I met Sue marriage became a major priority for me.
True, we could have gone on being just an unmarried couple, i.e. boyfriend and girlfriend and that would have been just fine, but here's the problem I had with that. By the time I'd met Sue, I'd had lots of girlfriends in my day. And while I'd genuinely cared for each one in her own particular time, the moment I met Sue I knew she was different. And suddenly having to label her the exact same way I'd labeled everyone who came before her, i.e. as my girlfriend, was now somehow insulting. And I could not wait to fix that. Girlfriends are great, but they're inherently temporary. Sue was no girlfriend and it was important to me that everyone understood that.
So we got married. It had nothing to do with god. It had nothing to do with the tax advantage (though they don't exactly suck). It had everything to do with it being imperative to me that Sue was not lumped into the conga line of imperfect girlfriends which preceded her. It was important to me to have a label which told the world immediately in no uncertain terms, this one is different, this one is the one.
God can go fuck himself. I got married because she was the one that mattered.
