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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.

Divorce rates are increasing all over the world, except in the United States where fewer people getting married means fewer people getting divorced. When people live separate single lives, they consume more resources which is contributing to the causes of global warming, according to a study at Michigan State University.

Divorced couples use more space in their respective homes, equating to 38 million more rooms to heat, light, and air condition. Divorced couples also consume 73 billion kilowatt-hours more of electricity and 627 billion gallons more of water than married couples.

More details of the study are provided at New Scientist, which provides more quotes and statistics about divorce and its effect on the environment.

I don’t know what it is about this time of the year and people getting engaged. I think it must be the flowering trees. They release a psudo-toxin that makes newly returned missionaries pull out rings and propose to the first freshman girl they find. Maybe it is cupid trying to get in as much extra business to pay for the taxes he owes. Maybe something about the sun being directly over the equator causes a shift in the earths magnetic field causing an excess of marital hormones to be generated in college co-eds. I’m not sure what it is, but it just seems like a lot of people are getting hitched. Maybe one of these years I’ll join them in the craziness.

If you are one of the accused, you might want to check out beforeforever.byu.edu which has worksheets for planning weddings and other pre-marital information.

I’ve heard a number of my friends and other people talk about “meeting someone” or “finding an eternal companion.”

These phrases seem a little odd to me.  They always seem to allude that the particular someone special is a person we haven’t met yet.  I think it may be unfair to think this way.  There are always possibilities that we will marry someone we have already met, but haven’t yet dated.

I think single people should keep an open mind about who they might eventually marry, and not limit their potential companions to those they haven’t yet met.

Furthermore, if singles put themselves in the mind-frame that they will marry someone they haven’t yet met, then they risk creating a habit of always looking for the next person, whom they will never actually find.