Marriage: What is marriage?
What is marriage all about?
Grover from Sesame Street discusses “What Is Marriage?” With little Jessy
After greeting Jessy, Grover asks “Do you know what marriage is?”
“A marriage is when 2 people get married,” says little Jessy.
Grover agrees, nods his jerky purple head and then asks Jessy to tell him what married people do.
“They hug and kiss,” Jessy promptly replies with smug grin on his face.
Isn’t it interesting how children can simplify things?
Grover expands the definition to include:
- Living together,
- Helping each other,
- Seeing each other every day and
- Friendship
That my friend sums up what marriage is.
Marriage: The state of being married; the union of two people, to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life; en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Marriage
Living together is much more than existing as roommates. Married people have a symbiotic relationship.
- They are inter-dependent.
- They help/support each other emotionally, psychologically and physically.
How is this done on a practical level?
1. Decide how the practical and functional things will be done. Who will do them and when will they be done:
- Paying bills
- Cleaning
- Washing
- Cooking
- Ironing
- How to get income to live
2. Do things that meet the emotional and romantic needs of each other (like hug and kiss).
Make a conscious decision to meet the love and emotional needs of each other. Jessie is quite right that married people hug and kiss.
But more than this married people should:
- Tell each other nice things
- Play with each other
- Surprise each other
- Hug and kiss regularly
3. See each other
Grover is right married people see each other. They don’t just look at or through each other – they “see each other“.
- They spend time to get to know each other.
- They find out what the details of each other. This includes but not limited to:
- What they like and don’t like
- What makes them glad or sad
- Their shoe size, clothes size, favourite meal, places they would like to go etc
- Their favourite songs, books, music, movies etc
- Every day married people talk about what happened in their day.
- The spend time to “see” each other.
Do all of these and you will have a very happy marriage
Marriage: The social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.
