I Believe Marriage Is More Than a Piece of Paper

A man attends a very joyous 50th wedding anniversary. When he asks the wife, how did she manage to stay happily married to the same man for so many years, she replies,

"Oh! You are mistaken! This is my fifth husband!" After the look of initial shock and confusion she explained, "No one ever stays the same in marriage. My husband has become a new man five times. He is not the boy I married, and I am not the girl he married."

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ProfessorClitinrub · 100+, M

They also say the person you marry is not the person you divorce.

Marriage, in the eyes of the law, IS a piece of paper. It's a business contract. Love, religion and procreation have nothing to do with the legalities of marriage.

You're talking about a long term relationship. Those aren't confined to a piece of paper. And the woman in this story has that figured out.

Dreammmer · 56-60, M

Well, your identity card is also just a piece of paper isnt it and so is your birth certificate.
You are wrong when you say that love and procreation have nothing to do with the legalities of marriage, over the centuries and in all societies marriage has never just been a private contract but a public contract.
The woman in the story has grown with her husband and is grateful for being with him. I suppose you have suffered shipwreck in marriage.

SW-User

I understand your point, and agree, in part. The problem is, the government is not the original author/designer of marriage...God is. So, those who are coming from this standpoint couldn't care less about the government's piece of paper (in theory)...it's a contract between them and God. Therefore it has everything to do with "love, religion, and procreation." God designed it that way.

This message was deleted by the author of the main post.

Dreammmer · 56-60, M

@Lakesidepoet: The piece of paper came much later in history, it just replaces the witnesses and the community in which a couple married. A marriage is never just a contract between God and a couple, it is always a public matter with legal consequences to protect the woman and the children involved.

SW-User

@Dreammmer: Yes, I understand that. I'm just saying that in the Biblical sense, the government really can't define...or redefine, marriage because it is not their institution -it's God's. However, I understand that we are a society of laws and regulations and therefore that piece of paper DOES mean something.

Dreammmer · 56-60, M

@Lakesidepoet: Indeed. I fully agree with you.

malizz · 70-79, M

If you see it through the eyes of the law, that is how you see it. The responses show that there are other ways of viewing the matter.