An interesting review of the new movie Corpse Bride and a listen to Joseph Ellis’ His Excellency on CD from the Wake County Library led me to think just enough to blog about the importance of marriage and children in society.
The
first thought is that children are still an important part of our
legacy and obligation to previous generations, in addition to a
short-term sacrifice in exchange for future benefits.
The second,
more heterodox, thought is that the whole “till death do us part”
aspect of marriage may be anachronistic. At a time when life was short,
young people with young children could find themselves widowed. Death
wasn’t always that far into the future, even for a second or third
spouse. Now, when husband and wives can live into their 90s, diamond
anniversaries are likely to be more common than widows and orphans, has
marriage moved from a question of morality to one of convenience as the
folks at Foreign Policy magazine suggested?
