The Sanctity of...

I don't have much time, so I'll have to keep this brief (hahahahahahaha!!!). I've really been trying to keep away from here as the end of the quarter is upon me and I'm attempting to put something (school) before MySpace, email, and Spider Solitaire. (P.S. I'm losing the battle to Spider Solitaire. Over and over and over. I only have a 5% win rate on the difficult level.)

Right. To the point.

Grau Geist and I had a little IM chit chat about gay marriage. I'm not going to get into should it be allowed or shouldn't it (yes, as a matter of fact, it should) but about whether or not you think it would be abused. Of course, it's my blog and only my opinion matters, so here you have it:

Marriage pacts. We all know someone who's made one or at least joked around about it. "If neither of us are married by the time we're 35 or 40 or 45, we'll get married." But what percentage of the marraiges (Bill and Hilary don't count) of which you are aware actually came about in this way?

Joe asserts that, were gay marriage to become legal, he'd marry a buddy in a heartbeat. There are tangible benefits to being married, after all.

Guess what? Upon reflection, I think that Joe and people like Joe are mostly full of _____(insert four-letter word here). They may not know it, but they are.

Why? Because most of us, no matter what our experiences, how many times we've been cheated on, or how messy the divorce still believe in love. And most of us still believe in marriage. As it were, we still believe in the sanctity of marriage.

Push come to shove, I honestly don't believe that legalization of gay marriage would lead to a flurry of platonic unions. Just as many people could take advantage of that now with a friend of the opposite sex as could with a friend of the same sex. Yet, not many do. I'm sure it happens, just not in droves.

If I had no prospects right now and my best friend weren't married, I wouldn't (with any sincerity) make a pact with her to marry one another were gay marriage to be legal. I love her fiercely and I'm sure she'd make a good wife. And she's a doctor so I could be a stay at home mom. But I wouldn't do it.

Because, even if it didn't work for me the first time, I'm holding out to do it right.

I suspect the same is true of most, if not all, of you.