Marriage

[Oni]

What is it to you?
What is a marriage?
What are the ways to get married?
What are the rules of engagement?
What is divorce?
I am looking for anything and everything on marriage, from your personal views of it, to the history of it. Could everyone please get in on this, i would really love to hear from the people whom are engaged, married, or have been engaged or married.

[electrolass]

My partner and I married 8 years ago this March.  I asked her parents for their blessings on our marriage.  They gave it, as did my mother. 

We lived together for a year before we married.  Both of us had previously been in long term relationships.  Our progression towards marriage happened slowly.  For us marriage was a way to express our happiness at having found one another before God, our creator in whom we both believe.  In addition, we wanted to let our friends and relatives know that we were announcing our commitment to one another.  I think we did this because we felt that as a couple we needed the support of our community.  Finally, when life gets tough, and I get annoyed with my most beloved, I wander over to the Wedding album and look through the pictures and re-read the vows we spoke to one another.  This calms me and helps me put my life back into perspective.  As an anthropology major, I know blah, blah that ritual is important to homo sapien sapiens, but as a living briefing H Sap Sap I feel the power of ritual in my gut. 

I grew up in a tough place.  By all rights, I should be jaded as all get out, but I am not.  I still feel joy at the smallest things.  I think I am able to do this because I stopped expecting anything out of this world.  If I expect anything...it is the unexpected, and I expect that to be WOW.  Sheesh, I sound like a wierdo. 

Nuff said.

[Rachael]

To me, marriage is something that deserves a lot more respect than it gets.  People marry each other on a whim, or for money or social status.  They don't treat it with the reverence it deserves.  To me, a marriage is a holy union between two people who love each other and want to be together for the rest of their lives.  Even if we add the legal definition, it's saying, "This is the person I want by my side when I die.  This is the person I want to fill out a joint tax return with.  This is the person I want to share my life with."

Marriage doesn't require kids or a dog or a cute little house in a nice neighborhood.  It requires two adults who love each other more than anything, and who want to be in each other's life.

I want to get married.  I want to find someone I love and share my life with him.  I want to be a wife.

[Kritter]

For me, marriage is a vow/oath/ pack between two people who wants to be with each other till the day they die and to love each other through the good and bad.

There are many ways to get married, by the church or through the government.

I don’t know if there are official rules of engagement (doubt it). However, I have my own ONE rule of it. That is, my partner and I have to be with each other for a curtain amount of time (over two years is ideal but one year is fine) before being engaged. Guess you can say I am kinda skeptical when it comes to engagements being less than a year and especially 6 months. But for those who have gotten engaged less than what I believe, please don’t take this personally. It is just my view point and I am not judging those who have.

Divorce is when one or both couple believe(s) they could not live with each and/or no longer have the love as before. Divorce is the very last option to take place if my partner and I can’t get along. People these days take divorce as a norm- quite disappointing and sad really. I am very fortunate and grateful that my parents never divorced.

[ViewSonic]

[bible]Genesis 2:20-25[/bible]

Marriage was instituted by God.  He performed the first marriage ceremony as recorded in the first book of the bible...Genesis.

[Oni]

Tabukin’ed-
Pronunciation: 'ta-bu-kin-ed
Function: noun or verb
1 : the state of being united to a person (not animal) in a legal, consensual, sexual, loving, and contractual relationship recognized and sanctioned by and dissolvable only by law —see also Untabukin’ed aka divorce. This type of union is different from that of a normal marriage, in that it is not limited to only heterosexual couples. It is open to anyone whom loves each other, and has been together for no less than 3 years, and has found unconditional love.
2 : the ceremony containing certain legal formalities by which a Tabukin’ed relationship is created

3: a union of two people that wish to be recognized as one. A complete match of each other. A forming of a family, both moral and legal. A union that defines you under god (what ever god you believe in, if you don’t believe in a god, then a union that defines you under honor to one another, or your religious beliefs.)

4. a union that can be preformed with out the state or legal involvement, and will still be recognized as such, but with out the legal benefits of having the state involved.

5. A union that two people enter unto with out realizing they have entered it, until they are in it.

[Rosa D.]

What is it to you? A sham.
What is a marriage? A sham.
What are the ways to get married? Get conned into it.
What are the rules of engagement? No hitting below the belt.
What is divorce? A way out.

[Oni]

OH you must explain those in more detail. I am really curious to hear.

[AlaskaIsCold]

What is a marriage?
What are the ways to get married?
What is divorce?

-Marriage is a ritual in which two people agree to perpetually validate each others existance be it though love or hate until which the agreement is terminated. Since the term "Marrige" Is just a word to identify a state of mind, you could get married at any time. Divorce is the termination of the agreement.

[Peachling]

Kay, first thing first, I don't mind marriage. I think it's just wonderful if two people decide to be formally recognized by God and country as a couple. Now that that's out of the way I think that it should be in no way affiliated with the government. Something as 'holy' as marriage belongs nowhere near our laws. Sure, tax cuts for comunal living is a good idea, but basing such, and other, benifits on such a religious function is just asking for trouble. I like the idea of civil unions or (not sure of the exact logistics) some sort of 'living together' deal made between two or more people. I'm not sure if this is practical, and I have little grasp of 'family values' seeing as I have (pretty much) none of them so that aspect of my ramblings is also lacking.