Curious about marriage versus long-term partnership logic thoughts.

[Chan790]

71. No babies in my future.

It mitigates a lot of these problems for me.

I would like a serious main partner or SO...I just have no illusions that it's forever. People's needs and wants in a partner change...the right person for today is almost certainly not the right person at 50; trying to force it to hold on to the mirage of a lifelong perfect partner isn't romantic, it's mutual masochism. The concept of lifelong happy monogamy is so unrealistic and harmful that it necessitates mockery.

I think nothing wrong with the notion of commitment if we're honest that it's commitment on a timer; that commitments have beginnings, middles and ends--they're not unfinished and unfulfilled but the opposite: each run their course and ended in time. We all have a series of commitments: for some people it may be a series of commitments one after another with the same person, each a renegotiation of what the relationship is; for others a series of commitments with a series of people, each addressing the relationship needs of the partners. Nobody honest with themselves has one commitment with one person for a lifetime unless they're both completely static people completely-dead of needs or wants...or just dead.

I don't know about the best symphony...but the worst one is the one that carries on ten measures too far and ends only when the lead violinist keels over in their chair, expiring of misery.