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I had a roommate once who wasn’t currently in school, and he was working a low paying food service job.  And get got married and I am really happy for him and his wife.

But at the same time, I thought his wife was kind of crazy for marrying him when he didn’t even have a decent enough job to provide for himself.

I’m not saying that only rich people should get married.  But I do think that everyone should look at the job potential of their future spouse, and that is where it gets tricky, because it is easy to get over optimistic about the potential of the person you love.  But a commitment like marriage requires some realistic outlook.

What I think is realistic, is looking at the career momentum of the person.  If the person is progressing through school, or successfully climbing a corporate ladder, then that person has good career momentum.  But if they aren’t in school, then you kind of have to expect them to maintain the same career path that they are currently in.  You cannot expect someone to make a dramatic change to their job potential at some latter point after marriage.

I guess all of the above was an elaborate way of saying, don’t marry someone with a dead-end job.

A couple of days ago, I discussed the definition of human rights.  I argued that a human right is something that applies to all humans, regardless of age, gender, race, or nationality.  It a right shouldn’t be given to a particular set of humans, then it probably isn’t a human right.

It is with that definition that I wish to argue that marriage is not a human right.  Many people claim that it is a basic human right to marry the person they love, but they are wrong.  

Consider a child, to whom the human rights of food, shelter, education are given.  If a child is in love with someone, should they be able to marry?  Of course not.

Marriage is not a human right.  Human rights don’t need licenses or certificates.  There isn’t such thing as a license to eat.  But marriage licenses and marriage certificates do exist.  

Marriage is instead a priviledge afforded by governments and/or religions.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the phrase, human rights.  What are human rights, and what do these rights include?

Wikipedia defines human rights as:

Human rights refers to the “basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.” Examples of rights and freedoms which are often thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.

Additionally, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes the wording, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

It seems to me that a human right is something that is applicable to all humans, regardless of age, sex, race, or nationality.

One test to see if something is an actual human right is to ask, “Should a child be given this right?”  Should a child be given the right to food?  Yes.  Should a child be given the right to be able to learn?  Yes.  Should a child be given the right to have shelter?  Yes.  Should a child be given the right to drive a car?  No!

There are some things which a child should not have the right to, such as driving a car.  In these cases we can redefine the right as a priviledge afforded by government and our own ambitions to acheive the priviledge.

Last year I critisized BYU for setting up Christmas decorations just a few days after Halloween.  This year, I’ve been looking forward to Christmas for weeks already.  Perhaps it is because stores have already been selling Christmas for weeks.  On Halloween-eve, I wandered through Walmart and enjoyed looking at the different Christmas trees that they are already selling.  A couple of weeks ago, I started scouting out the different varieties of Christmas lights available.

Speaking of Christmas lights, this year you will be able to find a wide array of LED lighting available.  These LED lights are less likely to burn out and will use a lot less electricity.  They also will cost 5-15 times more money.  For something that is used only seasonally, I don’t think there will be masses of people to buy LED lights.  I do think that LED lights could sell quite well if they were made available in new colors, shapes, and brightnesses.

I’m not really sure what sort of lights I may want to buy.  If I decide to have a small 20 inch tall fake tree in my office, I may decide to use LED lights on it.  For my tree at home, I’m still carefully looking at all the different light options.

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