What is a marriage? It’s been called a blessing, a curse, an institution, and a ‘ball and chain.’ It’s know as the ‘ultimate bliss’ and ‘the 10th circle of Hell.’ Sonnets, odes, songs, and mountains of books have been written about marriage.
Relationship advice columnist Ann Landers once wrote, “Every marriage is happy. Its the living together afterward that’s the challenge.”
Ann is right. Whatever else marriage may be, it’s a gamble. It’s also contract. So it has become increasingly common for people to enter into the bond of marriage with the caution formerly reserved for big business mergers.
The Eyes of the Beholder
From a religious perspective, marriage is a “holy union.” From the state’s perspective, marriage is a voluntary private agreement by a man and a woman to become husband and wife. And in the eyes of the judicial system, marriage is a binding contract with specific obligations under the law. And one day, that contract may need to be dissolved.
That’s why prenups were created.
Marriage is an emotional and...