Thought of the Day: Marriage

Recently I blogged about gay and lesbianism and due to the current right-to-marriage issues involving those communities, it got me thinking about marriage in general. I define marriage in three ways:
1 - A personal commitment between two people to be partners, friends and lovers for life.
2 - A social contract between a couple and the community in which they live, stipulating that the married couple will agree to cease their pursuit of intimate relationships with anyone other than the person they are married to, and in return; the community will offer financial and other special considerations to recognize and reward their adherence to the first stipulation.
I know, it's almost lawyerish. These first two definitions of marriage are those that I believe society at large concurs with. The following is my third definition of marriage and reflect what I believe marriage should be defined as:
3 - A social contract between two people (male & female) who intend to procreate and agree to be sexually and intimately monogamous with their partner in marriage until such time that all children born during the marriage, reach adulthood at which point, the marriage is dissolved.

I am one who believes that monogamy is not natural - it is manufactured by us, via marriage, to elevate our culture. This is a good thing but the only real purpose of two people committing to be with one another in a legally recognized marriage is to ensure that any offspring of that marriage are guaranteed the benefit of two (man & woman) parents during their various stages of growth and development. Once there are no longer any minor children between the couple, marriage should become a personal contract between two people, should they desire it, but the "legally recognized marriage" no longer serves a purpose. Civil Union should be the standard and legally recognized marriage should be reserved for those who intend to procreate. If you decide that you love someone enough to commit your fidelity to them for the rest of your life, you don't need legal recognition for that, all you need is a Civil Union contract and should you have children at some point, you can have the legally recognized classification of "married" added to your status but again, the married classification should self-dissolve upon the maturation of the child.

I think marriage should be finite because I believe that people are not naturally monogamous. With the maturation of the child/children, the couple is once again freed to do what they will. If they truly love one another, they'll stay together and obtain a Civil Union agreement but there are many people who find, after being with a person for a given period of time, would be happier alone or would rather seek a better suited partner. They don't do that because of the stigma associated with having the "divorced" label. Many people live in regret/misery because they have children. If they knew that everything would be okay once those children were grown, it would probably make things much more tolerable. Also, if you are one who believes in abstinence before marriage, you must know that there exist the real possibility that two people might find their selves to be sexually incompatible. Sexual compatibility is as important as all other areas of compatibility and equal yoking. Imagine marrying someone who has absolutely no sex drive and you are the polar opposite. I think you can figure out the rest. Anywho, those are my thoughts on marriage.