Marriage

[Kyuuketsuki]

I like what you say Evie. I think your twisting the term 'commitment' to mean something it isn't. You're viewing it as something negative and unwanted. Sure, the pieve of paper is meaningless. A Commitment is what love is all about. Love without commitment isn't love I'd suggest.

I agree, well mostly ... the piece of paper is [empirically] meaningless, as is the ring and the ceremony but they are symbols of a promise made (of the love) between two people and therefore acquire meaning because of it. There is no way that I can definitively claim that the love between a married couple is greater than that between an unmarried couple living together but I'd suggest that having made the commitment, having agreed to be legally bonded, you elevate that relationship in some undefinable manner. It's about love as you say, it is (or should be IMO) about promising to try if that love fails or falters, it is (again or should be) about striving for something better together than can be achieved being on one's own and at the risk of invoking the NTS there are some who can't appreciate that unless they actually make (and fully buy into) that commitment.

Can you love without commitment? I'm not sure ... I suppose there might be some twisted version of "love" that lacks it but is that truly love? I'm not even sure I really know what love is ... I mean I do, at least I think I do, but I'd find it very hard to define (and end up with a definition that works for everyone).

Kyu